Project Life: Gone Wrong
by The Rickaboo
Summary: Hojo engineered a new virus and it quickly infects Midgar. Now Reno and Yuffie have to get out of the city, but first they have to get along. RenoYuffie zombie survival fic.
1. Project Life Begins

**Disclaimer: **FF7 belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n: **I know the idea is pretty overused, but this story is really more experimental anyway. I'm not sure at what point in time this really takes place, so bear with me here. This is a zombie Armageddon kind of story, kind of like 28 Days Later without the army. Please no flames, they're not helpful or productive. I don't want to hear how much you hate my story, if you don't like it just don't read it. If you do like it, please review!

**Summary:** Reno stumbles across Shin-ra's newest secret, but it's too late to stop Hojo. The dead inhabitants of Midgar are coming back to life and slaughtering each other, so Reno does the only thing he can, he takes the only survivor he finds and gets the hell out of that city! With his know-how and Yuffie's ninja skills, they're sure to make it out alright. The only problem is, the city's in lockdown, and the two former enemies are going to have to learn to get along or die trying. Reno+Yuffie, obviously.

**Warnings:** Violence, blood, gore, language, I'm not sure what else yet.

**Chapter One: Determining the Cost of Science**

"Sir! Please, have a look at these charts!" Hojo waved several papers in the president's face eagerly. "This is absolutely amazing, you have to see this!" He was as giddy as a schoolgirl and Rufus stared at him in annoyance.

"I said I'd look at it later. Didn't your test subjects die anyway?" Rude let out a snicker at the president's comment. Hojo had indeed become the company joke. He looked down at the president angrily.

"Yes! That's what I'm trying to tell you! Subjects 14 through 29 died several days ago from the injections, and this morning when I opened up the lab they were wandering around again!"

Rufus looked up from his cup of coffee and snorted. "You honestly expect me to believe that Hojo? Get out of here, go back down there and play in your lab." He sorted through a pile of documents on his desk, but Hojo refused to give up.

"Sir, please, I'm serious about this! I've never seen anything like this before, it's incredible! Just come down to the lab and look, and if I'm wrong you'll never hear from me again!" Hojo pleaded, waving his papers hopefully. Rufus slammed his hands down on the table and got to his feet.

"Sounds like a deal to me. Come on Reno, Rude, let's go see these dead test subjects." He said, motioning for his bodyguards to follow him. Hojo was ecstatic as he lead them through the building to the elevators.

Reno glanced over at his coworker as Hojo rambled on about statistics and the chemicals injected into the test subjects. A small smirk appeared on Rude's face as they reached the laboratory and the elevator doors slid open again. Rufus stepped out, quickly followed by Hojo as the excited scientist dashed ahead of him. They walked down at long white hallway to a thick security door, and Hojo's hands were shaking so badly he could hardly punch in the access code. The door opened and the two Turks waited behind as the older men barged into the research lab.

"You know, Hojo, I don't even remember granting you funding for this project." Rufus said threateningly when the scientist refused to quiet down.

"Oh, well um…" He stuttered.

"President Rufus! This is remarkable! Have you seen what this idiot has done?" Reno looked up in disgust as Scarlet rushed over to Rufus.

"Come here, let me show you." She smiled at the young president and beckoned him over. Reno gave Rude a glance that said 'what a hooker' and the older Turk stifled a laugh. Both men stared with interest, however, when Scarlet opened the door to a holding cell and pulled out a gun. They quickly walked over to stand beside their president in front of the thick glass wall and watched as Scarlet shot one of the test subjects in the chest.

"What are you-" Reno started, but Rufus shushed him, watching the subject fall to their knees inside the cell. Blood poured from his chest out across the floor and he hit the ground, the monitor about their heads showing his pulse had stopped.

"Okay, that was interesting." Rufus exclaimed, turning back around to face Hojo.

"Oh, it has barely begun!" The excited professor replied, pointing back into the cell.

Rufus turned to look again and his eyes went wide in horror as the subject climbed shakily to his feet. There was a gaping wound in his chest where the bullet had hit, but he didn't seem to notice. Reno stared into the cell in awe, glancing every so often up at the monitor to make sure the man was really dead.

"How is this possible..?" Rufus breathed, watching the corpse lurch forward toward the glass.

"It was quite simple, really, I engineered a virus that can reanimate dead flesh. I stumbled across it by accident while researching what went wrong with the Jenova Experiments." Hojo said proudly as the man in the cell reached the glass. He pressed himself against it, scraping and clawing with his twitching fingers.

Reno cringed and stepped back when one of the man's fingernails broke off against the glass. "This is horrible, why would you want something like this?" He asked, looking back to Hojo. The professor stuck his nose in the air haughtily.

"Well I hardly expect a mere Turk to understand." He turned around and Reno bristled angrily.

"This is a bad idea." he said through gritted teeth. Rufus nodded absently.

"Hmm, yes, I'll think this over and get back to you. Good work, Hojo." The president swept back out of the lab, his tow bodyguards right behind him.

The security door was closed behind them and as they stepped into the elevator Rufus turned on them.

"This is top secret, neither of you are to speak to anyone about what you've seen today. If word of this gets out Midgar could turn on the Shin-ra corporation." He said briskly, hardly casting a glance at either Turk.

"Understood." Reno replied, putting his hands in his pockets.

**xXx**

Reno sighed peacefully as the hot water beat down on his skin. It was just the thing to start the morning, a nice hot shower and a rendezvous in the Shin-ra kitchen with his fellow Turks. It was his basic routine every morning, and he never suspected a thing when he shut off the water and stepped out of his shower. His wet hair hung around his shoulders limp as he grabbed a towel. He glanced up at the clock and cursed, twenty minutes behind schedule today. Quickly drying himself, he wrapped the towel around his waist and walked out of the bathroom into his apartment. He entered his bedroom dug around in his dresser for a clean uniform. A sharp buzzing filled his senses and he looked around in surprise.

A red light had begun flashing in his living room and he ducked out to see what was going on. The light cats an eerie glow around his living room, and the intercom beeped as a voice came through the speakers.

"This is not a drill, please follow the emergency evacuation route out of the building. I repeat, this is not a drill, please evacuate the building." An automated female voice boomed overheard. Reno cursed and dashed back into his room to throw his clothes on. He grabbed his favorite weapon and his keys and ran out the door.

People were running everywhere in the lobby, completely panicked with no idea what to do. He spotted Elena across the room, trying to get everyone's attention through the turmoil.

"Elena! What's happening?" he cried, running over to her. Someone rammed into her and she fell, scrambling back up to her feet.

"I don't know, all I heard is that the building's been contaminated! We've got to get these people out of here!" She looked really scared and Reno felt sorry for her. He nodded quickly and jumped up on a table.

"Hey!! Knock it off and listen to me!" He bellowed. The room fell somewhat quieter, but several people still looked terrified.

"Please, everyone, try to stay calm so we can all get out of this. Now, slowly, I want you all to file down the stairs into the main lobby, please avoid the elevators, we still don't know what's going on. The power could go out at any minute, don't panic, we're working on finding out the reason for the evacuation." He said loudly. Several people nodded and began herding others toward the staircase.

"Thanks, you always were good at getting attention." Elena said nervously. She shook her head, "We'd better go up and see what's going on in the President's office." They ran towards the staircase and made their way up as hordes of employees and civilians tried to go down.

Reno shoved his way up rudely, muttering hurried excuses as people slammed into him. Eventually, the thick stream of people thinned out and they made it to the president's office, running down hallways and up another set of stairs. His office was straight ahead and they could hear angry voices on the other side. They burst inside in time to see the President finish shoving papers and documents into a briefcase.

"I don't care how it happened, fix it!" Rufus yelled. Professor Hojo drew back at the furious president's outbursts.

"I'm telling you, you can't let any of these people out of the building! We need to contain it! If you just let everyone leave like this the entire city could be contaminated by tomorrow morning!" he seemed thrilled and horrified all at the same time, and Reno's stomach lurched in disgust as he realized what must have happened.

"You're saying that virus you made got out?" He cried, rushing forward towards the scientist. Hojo turned around and huffed at him.

"Reno, Elena, get in the helicopter, we're leaving." Rufus said sternly from his place at the large window. Elena rushed forward past him but Reno faltered.

"We can't just leave it like this, we have to do something! People could die if that virus gets out into the city!" Reno said hurriedly. Rufus gave him a blank stare.

"You can try to fix things if you want, but the building's going into lockdown in ten minutes. The antidote should still be in the main lobby, it was supposed to be shipped out to Junon this afternoon. Good luck." Rufus said plainly. He stepped out the window and Reno stared after him, how could the president of Shin-ra just leave things like this? _'He must be sending in a team…' _Reno thought, _'I've got to get that antidote.'_

The sound of helicopter blades echoed through the room and he knew they'd left him there. Turning back to the office door in determination, he stepped out into the hall. _'I can do this.'_ He'd seen Shin-ra do some pretty low things, but this was by far the worst. He ran forward through the hall and burst out the doors to the staircase.

**xXx**

"Morning, Yuffie. Sleep well?" Tifa chirped from her seat behind the bar. Yuffie gave her a small wave and yawned again.

"Yeah, not too bad. I'd better get going, gonna be late for work." She said, grabbing the bagel Tifa offered her and rushing out the door. She waved over her shoulder as Tifa called out for her to have a good day.

The streets seemed unusually quiet as she walked along, glancing around her for the usual crowd of people. A TV billboard up ahead showed pictures of a large building under quarantine, and she stared at it in surprise. The words 'Shin-Ra' flashed across the screen and she gasped, stopping to look at it.

"Around 8:30 this morning we received word that an experiment gone wrong in the Shin-ra laboratories resulted in the entire building going under quarantine. What seems to have been released has not been confirmed, but we believe it is dangerous to the public in some way, and nearly two hundred employees of Shin-ra have not been allowed to leave the building." A fleet of Shin-ra specialists was shown descending on the enormous building, and Yuffie watched fixated as an explosion ripped through an upper floor. The reported gasped and the camera bounced awkwardly for a moment as the helicopter readjusted. The explosion reached her own ears and she realized with horror how close the building actually was to her.

"It seems something has triggered an explosion from the inside. Shin-ra has a lot of explaining to do with this one." Several dark objects fell from the floor that had exploded and Yuffie heard the reporter scream in horror. "Oh! Four people have just jumped from one of the upper floors of the Shin-ra building! I can't believe this is happening!" Her horrified voice echoed down the mostly empty street and Yuffie shivered nervously.

There was muffled shouting and the camera quickly shifted down to the ground where several bodies lay. "This is impossible! One of the people that just fell more than fifty stories just got up again! Paramedics are rushing to the scene!" The camera zoomed in and Yuffie held a hand over her mouth as the man that had just gotten up grabbed a paramedic and attacked him. The reporter was going crazy now. "The man just bit a paramedic! He's attacking him after surviving a fifty story fall!" Yuffie's blood ran cold as she watched the screen, and she glanced around her nervously. She didn't bother to stay and see what else might happen, she moved down the road quickly.

She'd been walking for several minutes when she noticed someone up ahead of her in a Shin-ra uniform. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up and she shuddered. He made odd choking noises and Yuffie knew something was wrong. She pressed her body up against the wall as the man lurched past, not noticing her. There was a woman walking behind her, and Yuffie watched in complete horror as the man leapt on her, digging his teeth into her shoulder.

The woman's screams echoed down the street and several people rushed to help her. Yuffie ran down the street away from them, she didn't even want to know what was happening. She stopped dead in her tracks when she looked up ahead and realized a group of people, lurching in her direction as if their legs didn't work right. She could see the Shin-ra building behind them in the distance and turned on her heel, quickly taking a side street.

Too late, however, the group had seen her and was now lurching quickly after her. She began to panic when she heard them growling and coughing behind her, and she started to run. Something horrible was happening and she had to think fast, winding around a tall building and jumping down a ledge to land in a parking lot on the other side. She saw a staircase leading downward to her left and she ran to it as the people following her appeared at the top of the ledge. She looked down and noticed a Shin-ra logo on a heavy metal door. Looking behind her, she realized she didn't have a choice anymore and ran down the stairs, throwing open the door at the bottom. She shoved hard, closing it behind her and locking it, before sinking down to her knees and resting her head against the cement wall.

**xXx**

Reno dashed down the staircase, nearly tripping on several occasions and slamming into walls as he took corners too fast. He reached the bottom floor in record time, bursting into the huge lobby and glancing around at the panicked people trying to get out the front doors.

"Please, help us! The soldiers won't let anyone out!" A man recognized him and grabbed his coat, pulling Reno's face up to his.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do." he murmured, prying the man's hand's from his coat and running around the back of the desk. He found the secretary's keys and rushed over to the outgoing mailbox. Unlocking it, he threw it open and stared at the pile of letters. The antidote wasn't there. _'Shit…'_

He turned to go back up the stairs to Hojo's laboratory, but stopped when he saw the clock. _'Lockdown in three minutes!_' he cursed out loud this time and made a mad dash for the back room. He threw the door open and ran across the lounge, pulling open a service hatch. If the soldiers wouldn't let anyone out the front doors, he'd just have to find another way out that they wouldn't be monitoring. He slipped into the service hatch and closed it behind him.

The crawlspace was small and cramped, but he was just thin enough to be able to fit inside, wriggling his way along the shaft. It dipped down and opened up to reveal a series of heaters, and Reno crawled past them and let himself fall several feet again. He moved along the shaft, dipping downward every so often, until he finally came to what he'd been searching for, a grate. He turned around and brought his feet up in front of him, kicking violently at the grate until it finally gave in and broke, clattering loudly across the floor.

He scrambled out of the cramped duct and got to his feet on the cold cement floor of the service tunnel. This particular service duct could take him all the way to the number seven reactor if he wanted to go there. Brushing himself off, he dashed down the long tunnel, even here he wasn't safe from the lockdown yet. He heard a siren go off overhead and sped up, giving it his all as he ran down the tunnel. He cleared a thick doorway and fell to his knees, sitting back in exhaustion as an enormous metal door slid closed behind him. He grinned in triumph, he'd gotten out. The intercom overheard crackled and another automated message came through the speaker.

"The Shin-ra Corporation is now in lockdown, any attempt to enter or exit the building is useless. Please remain calm until the lockdown has been lifted."

Reno laughed. "Hojo, you are a complete idiot."

**End of Chapter One** _Please review!_


	2. Evening From Hell

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n:** Wow, thanks for all the support! This chapter is kind of late, I didn't plan on it taking so long to update. Short too, I know, the next one will be a lot longer. Please review!

**Chapter Two: Evening From Hell**

The air in the service tunnel was cold, and Reno shivered slightly as he walked along. He put his hands in his pockets when a gust of icy air blew down from an air duct overhead. The alarm had finally stopped telling everyone to stay calm, so he could walk along in peace now.

_'I wonder what's going on up above.'_ He glanced up, as if he could see through the thick concrete. There was an exit sign flashing up ahead of him and he started walking faster.

Before he even knew what had happened, something hit him in the face and he stumbled back in surprise, clutching his hands to his nose. Something darted out from under an outcropping and he squinted at it in hatred.

"What the _fuck_, Kisaragi?!" He cried out, waving an arm at her dramatically as she stood up.

"Well, what the hell are you doing down here!" She cried out defensively, jumping back when he took out his nightstick and moved like he was going to attack her.

"Trying to get the hell away from Shin-ra, what are you doing down here?!" He rubbed his sore face and relaxed.

Yuffie snorted, "Hiding from those _things_." He stared at her like she was insane.

"What?" He dropped his hand back down to his side after deciding his nose wasn't broken.

"Those things! Up there! How could you have missed them?" She seemed borderline frantic and Reno sighed heavily.

"Whatever, I have to get out of here." He shoved past her and walked several feet down the tunnel to the door.

"Good luck, it's locked!" Yuffie muttered. Reno looked back at her and rolled his eyes.

"You really are clueless." He laughed, pulling out a security card.

He swiped it and the door clicked. Moving forward, he pulled it open and glanced out. Nothing. He gave her one last snide look before slipping out the door. A hand latched on to his coat and he glanced back sharply.

"You can't leave me here!" She howled, darting out the door when he tried to pull away.

"Like shit I can't, you're not coming with me." He slapped her hand off his jacket and started up the stairs. She pulled the door closed behind him and followed anyway.

"You're like a puppy, go away." He growled, glancing over his shoulder at the young ninja.

"You are so full of yourself, I can't believe you'd want to come out here alone." She mumbled.

He ignored her and walked along, completely oblivious to the fact that the usual crowd of civilians was no where to be found. Yuffie's heart pounded in her ears as she followed the Turk, glancing back and forth down the street in case they were attacked.

Something moved down an ally across the street and her hand automatically moved to where her Conformer normally rested. When she realized she was weaponless, her body tensed up and she stopped, staring at the moving shadow. Reno glanced back at her curiously and stopped walking.

"What?" He asked, following her gaze to the alley.

He watched in horror as a hunched figure emerged from the shadows, lurching forward on an obviously broken leg. Choked gurgles escaped its mouth as he scrambled toward then.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Reno hissed, jumping back as the man collapsed where he'd been moments before. He scratched and howled at Reno, and Yuffie held her breath to keep from screaming. The red haired Turk turned and dashed down the road again, and Yuffie yelped in fear when she noticed several more people walking awkwardly towards them.

"Hey, wait!" She called out, running after Reno.

"What's going on? This is all Shin-ra's fault isn't it?" She demanded, catching up to him as he paused at an intersection. He sighed and looked down at her.

"It was Hojo's newest experiment, a leftover from the Jenova Project. He said it keeps a person alive even after death, or something like that. But it was just discovered, we didn't even know about it until yesterday." He said quietly. Yuffie gave him a suspicious look.

"I shouldn't even be telling you this." He muttered, crossing the street.

"So what are they going to do about it? Are all those people back there dead?" Yuffie was starting to lose her temper, Shin-ra had found another way to destroy the world.

Reno spun around again, clenching and unclenching his hands in exasperation. "Look, I don't know, alright? But I have a really bad feeling about this. They locked up Shin-ra headquarters because they were afraid that this would get out, chances are they'll do the same to the city if this is spreading that fast." He looked around again and sighed.

"Where the hell is the post office?" He finally asked. Yuffie would have laughed if she wasn't so upset. She pointed down the street and mumbled something incoherent. Reno was just turning to leave when the huge TV screen over the street came on. They looked up at it as the screen flickered and an automated message crackled out.

"Please remain calm. Midgar is now entering lockdown, we ask that you remain inside your homes until the situation has been resolved. All exits are now inaccessible, if you try to leave the city you will be stopped. Please remain calm, and stay inside your homes. This is not a drill."

Reno stared up at the message flashing across the screen. "Of course…"

"What's happening? Reno?" Yuffie's voice wavered in panic. They heard a siren begin to blare somewhere down the street, and Yuffie spun around to see a horde of people walking toward them.

"I think we should get out of here…" He said quietly.

Yuffie nodded and quickly followed his lead as he ducked down a side street. They hadn't been walking for long when a noise behind them startled Yuffie. She stopped to look, and before she knew it, a girl about her own age leapt on her from a low window.

She screamed as the girl growled and bit at her, and fought to get away. The girl had a good grip on her sweatshirt, and Yuffie lodged a foot in her chest trying to kick her off. She shrieked again as the girl got a hold of her arm and tried to bite her. Dashing to her side, Reno brought his nightstick down on the back of the girl's neck, and Yuffie gaped in horror at the resounding snap. She immediately went limp, and Reno threw the body off of her.

"I had it covered." Yuffie whimpered, jumping to her feet.

"Are you hurt?" he asked, checking her over to make sure she was alright.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little startled." She said, hugging herself defensively. "Were you worried?" She teased as Reno eyed her.

"No, but I think you can get infected by being bitten, I was going to ditch you." He said casually. Yuffie glared at him as he walked away down the alley.

**xXx**

They stared up at the building in front of them warily. Yuffie shifted uncomfortably as she stepped forward. She was almost to the door when she spun around.

"You're not going to disappear if I go inside are you? I'm starting to get the feeling you're the only other living person in this city…" She said softly, her hand resting on the door handle.

"You want me to hold your hand? Come on, you're supposed to be a ninja." he sneered slightly, but followed her up to the door anyway. She just glared at him and went inside.

The lights were out and she immediately noticed the window in the back was broken. Her heart began to beat faster as she realized a fight had taken place here, chairs were thrown everywhere and tables were overturned.

"Tifa?!" She yelled, but Reno grabbed her and put a hand over her mouth.

"Do you honestly want to draw more attention from those things?" He hissed in her ear. She pulled away from him angrily, but didn't call out again.

Walking carefully through the mess, she gazed up the staircase. There was blood up above on the landing and she held her breath as she started up the steps. Reno inspected the damage done to the bar, climbing behind the counter. He dug around and found a case of assorted hard alcohol and grabbed a bottle. He took a drink and set the bottle on the counter. Walking back around to the front, he saw a body. It was crumpled against the wall and covered in blood. Moving towards it carefully, he prodded it with a broken piece of chair. No movement, looked like the neck was broken. He turned the body over and jumped back in horror, it was the bartender, Tifa…

He shoved a table in front of the body so Yuffie wouldn't see it and all but ran across the room to grab up the bottle of alcohol again.

Yuffie peeked around the corner at the top of the staircase, making sure no one was there. Confident that she was alone, she made her way to her bedroom and closed the door. She snatched up her backpack and her supply of shuriken, and dug under her bed until her fingers wrapped around the cold metal of her Conformer. She shoved some supplies in her backpack, duct tape, snacks, medical supplies, and threw a strap over her shoulder. Dashing back down the stairs, she spotted Reno seated at the bar and drinking from a bottle.

"What's the plan?" She asked, taking a seat next to him. He shrugged.

"I'm going to the post office." He said plainly.

"What for?" Yuffie seriously doubted that the post office was going to be helpful.

Reno cast a glance over at her before setting down the bottle and getting to his feet. "Shin-ra mailed out a package this morning, I need to find it." He said simply. Yuffie threw her hands in the air.

"Great, let's get goin." She jumped up and followed him over to the door. He glanced around outside for a moment before deciding it was safe to leave. Yuffie scampered after him nervously, her Conformer clutched in her hand.

"Hey Reno, where do you suppose all the people went?" Yuffie asked suddenly. He really didn't want to think about it.

"I have no idea, Yuffie." He mumbled, turning down another street and stopping dead in his tracks. His eyes went wide and she looked up at him nervously.

"I think we're going to need to find another way around…" He said quietly, staring up ahead of them at the horde of walking corpses. Yuffie grabbed his coat in fear and he slapped her hand away.

"No big deal, we'll just find another way." He said, walking down an alley to their left. He hadn't gone very far when two men appeared in front of them, shaking as they walked. Reno sighed and Yuffie drew up close behind him.

She tugged on his arm, telling him to just go back and they could try somewhere else, but he flipped out his nightstick and advanced on the two men. One lurched at him violently and the other fell, giving him time to crack the first man on the head with his weapon before turning to face the second. It snatched at his foot desperately, groaning furiously. He brought the nightstick down and beat the man repeatedly, only stopping when he heard Yuffie cry out. Looking over his shoulder, his eyes widened slightly as he felt the wind from her giant shuriken. It stuck into the brick wall and he stared down at the mangled corpse of the first man.

"You should be more careful, that guy almost grabbed you." She murmured, stepping forward and yanking the shuriken from the wall. Reno just shrugged it off and collected himself. Making their way carefully down the alley, he peered up at a tall building.

"I think this is it." He said, noting the Shin-ra logo on the back door. Yuffie gave him a questioning look and he scowled back at her. "What, I don't deal with the postal system." He pulled on the door handle and yanked it open, staring inside blankly.

Yuffie looked past him in absolute horror, glancing from Reno's expressionless face to the back room filled with obviously dead postal workers. The crowd turned to look at him, and just as they started advancing, Yuffie shoved Reno aside and yanked the door closed.

"Well." Reno murmured, shuddering slightly. "That jaw thing, on that guy in the back. Yeah, I didn't need to see that." He could hear the people trapped in the back room pounding on the door, and Yuffie nearly knocked him off his feet as she pushed him down the alley.

"There's more coming down the alley, we'd better go up." She whispered, leaping gracefully onto a dumpster and grabbing a window sill above her head. She pulled herself up to look into the room. Dropping back down onto the dumpsters, she looked down at the disgruntled Turk.

"Okay, that room is clear, come on." She jumped back up and he scrambled onto the dumpster, shoving her in the window with a yelp. She spun around to glare back out at him, but to her surprise he pulled himself up over the window sill and landed in a heap on top of her.

"What are you doing?" She hissed, twisting around and trying to shove him off of her.

"That fucking thing almost grabbed me, you could have hurried." He growled back, refusing to move as she gasped for air.

"Get your fat Turk ass off me." She shoved against him and he jumped to his feet, glancing around the room.

"Looks like somebody's office." He said, pulling his nightstick out again. Yuffie followed his lead and gripped her Conformer in front of her defensively.

"Okay, we need to find the Shin-ra branch, they process almost all the main businesses here." He said quietly, opening the door and peeking out into the hallway.

"Unfortunately, I think it's on the bottom floor." He added, looking at the floor key tacked to the wall next to the stairs.

"But that means we'll have to go past all those dead people…" Yuffie groaned. Reno had already started down the stairs and Yuffie reluctantly ran after him.

**End of Chapter Two**


	3. Teamwork Would Help

**Disclaimer: **FFVII belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n:** Thanks so much for reviewing, I can't believe how much support I've gotten for this story!

Still fell a little short of the length I was hoping for, but I thought it was a pretty good chapter anyway. Enjoy and please review!

**Chapter Three: Teamwork Would Help**

Reno peered around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, glancing around the lobby for any signs of the walking dead. There were bloodstains all over the floor, along with scattered bits of mail. Yuffie tripped on the last step and slammed into him, nearly sending him out into the lobby. He caught himself and looked back at her, clinging to his coat in embarrassment.

"You are so clumsy." He mouthed to her, shaking his head. He glanced around the room, it was free of people.

Stepping out into the open, he noticed a door behind the counter marked 'employees only' with a Shin-ra logo. He walked carefully across the room and stopped behind the counter for a moment. There were slots for mail to be slipped through in the wall beside him and he could see people moving around on the other side.

Yuffie stood close behind him as he eased the door open and looked around. There were three people in the room, and before he could stop her, Yuffie had sliced one in half with her shuriken. It whizzed past Reno's head again and she caught it, shoving him forward into the room.

He darted forward and brought his nightstick down against the side or another man's head, sending him reeling into a wall. He crumpled on the floor and didn't move. By the time Reno looked back at his partner, she had finished off the last man in the room and slammed the door. She gazed over at him with a sickened look on her face.

He quickly set to work, throwing mail all around the room as he dug through the bins. Yuffie walked up behind him.

"So, umm, what are we looking for?" She asked. He paused for a moment to glance back at her.

"It's most likely going to be in a briefcase, a metal one. It will have a bio sticker on it and it's addressed for Junon. I really doubt it would be here with this stuff, but you never know. They didn't think it was such a big deal when it was sent out this morning." Yuffie nodded and started poking around the room.

They had been searching the room for half an hour when they heard scraping at the door. Yuffie jumped and ran behind Reno in fear.

"It's totally not in here, let's just go." She whimpered. Someone was pounding on the door and growling, and Reno began to search for another way out.

"Here!" he waved her over when he opened the lift door.

"The mail lift?" She asked nervously as he climbed inside the narrow shaft and grabbed on to the cable.

"Would you rather go out that way and say hello to rotting face man?" He asked, sneering back at her and he pulled himself up several feet and bracing himself on the shaft wall.

"You know, you'd have more friends if you weren't such an asshole." She mumbled, climbing in behind him and closing the small door.

The tunnel was pitch black, making it difficult for Reno to find his way up. He panted heavily, sweat dripping down his face as he strained to pull himself up another five feet. He knew Yuffie probably thought she was dying, but she hadn't said anything. All he could hear from her was concentrated gasps as she struggled up after him. He felt around the walls for an opening, almost missing the splinter of light another foot above his head. Scrambling up, he pushed on it. It was locked. He turned around and tried to kick it, no use, he wasn't flexible enough. Thinking quickly, he called out to Yuffie.

"What?" She groaned, stopping as she looked up to his barely illuminated face.

"Get up here, I need you to kick this open." He said hurriedly. She sighed and struggled some more, grabbing onto his leg as he braced himself against the walls. Climbing up into his lap, she turned around so she was sitting on him. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she relaxed for a minute.

"I'm not a fucking chair, Kisaragi." he growled in her ear.

She mumbled something and brought her feet up in front of her, kicking out at the locked door viciously. Something snapped on the other side and she kicked harder. After several tries it began to give way, and with one final kick, the door flew off and clattered across the tile. Checking the room quickly, she decided it was safe and dove out onto the floor. She crouched on all fours and huffed in exhaustion.

"I'm never doing that again." She whimpered. A loud crack sounded overhead and she looked up in shock.

"You almost had bigger things to worry about." Reno shot back, wiping the blood from his nightstick on the twitching man's shirt. Yuffie stared at the body in horror, glancing up in time to see the red haired Turk vanish out the door across the room.

"Reno!" She cried out, leaping to her feet and dashing after him.

The hallway was clear, at least, once Yuffie caught up to Reno it was. He marched angrily up the stairs to the fourth floor.

At the end of the hall was another door marked 'roof access' and Reno moved towards it as the young ninja followed him nervously.

"How are we even going to get out of the city?" She asked quietly, starting to doubt whether they would survive this nightmare. Reno glanced back at her but didn't reply. He kicked open the door to the roof and stomped up the stairs.

She walked up behind him slowly, crossing her arms as he stood above her at the top of the stairs. He was staring at something and she peeked up over the top of the stairs to catch a glimpse of a black helicopter parked on the edge of the roof. He rushed over and quickly began inspecting it. Yuffie approached him carefully, the Turk was getting pretty worked up.

"Can you fly it?" She asked quietly. He spun around to look at her.

"Of course I could fly it." He said, turning back to punch the side of the helicopter. "If it had any gas or keys. Plus it looks like the last pilot got in a fight with something, it's kinda banged up inside." Yuffie's gaze fell and he yanked the door open.

Almost immediately, the pilot himself leaped out form behind the seat and fell on Reno. He yelped in surprise and struggled with the dead man, trying to loosen his grip on his coat. Yuffie dashed over and thrust a blade of her Conformer through the man's skull. He went limp and Reno tossed him aside in disgust.

"Thanks." He muttered, dragging the body over to the edge of the roof and tossing it over. Yuffie nodded and he stood there for a moment looking back at her.

"I'm tired. How 'bout you?" he called over to her. She nodded and waited as he slowly made his way back over to her and checked the inside of the helicopter again. It was clear this time, and he climbed inside. She heard him shifting things around and stepped back as a bag of mail hit the ground where she had been standing. He leaned back out and motioned for her to come inside. Giving him an odd glance, she pulled the helicopter door closed, locked it, and crawled behind the seat to the empty space in the back. He'd found a blanket and sat down against the wall, spreading the blanket out over his legs.

She sat across from him and hugged her legs to her chest. Sighing heavily, she closed her eyes. This was the worst day of her life. She might have been able to cry if she wasn't so traumatized…

"I don't bite." Reno was pouting on the other side of the helicopter and Yuffie glared over at him.

She thought about it for a moment before crawling across to sit a few feet away from him. Opening her backpack, she pulled out a pack of crackers. She ripped the package open and started shoving some in her mouth hungrily. Offering some to Reno, he scooted closer to her and took them. They sat there quietly for some time as they thought back on the days events.

"I wish I could have found Tifa…" Yuffie murmured sadly. Reno shook his head.

"No you don't." She glanced over at him and he refused to meet her gaze. "I saw her, just before we left." Tears started t form in Yuffie's eyes and he cursed to himself.

"Well, she isn't one of those things, if you're worried about it. It looked like she gave them a hell of a fight…"

That did make her feel slightly better, and she tried to fight back the tears that were rolling down her face. Reno groaned.

"Don't cry, come on." He really couldn't stand seeing her like that, it didn't seem natural.

Putting an arm around her shoulders, he pulled her over and she leaned her face against his coat. He patted her arm awkwardly and offered her a cracker.

"You've still got me, huh?" He flashed her a goofy grin and she almost smiled.

"We're supposed to be enemies." She murmured. He snorted.

"I think you'd make a great Turk." His voice lowered and he shoved another cracker in his mouth before he could say anything stupid.

She gave him a sideways glance and snuggled into his coat as the light began to dim around them. He pulled the blanket up around them further and tucked it around his shoulder. It was going to get cold tonight.

**xXx**

Yuffie groaned in discomfort. What the hell had she slept on?

Rolling over, she realized it was a cold, metal helicopter floor. There was an arm around her waist and she glanced over to see Reno snoring at her side. She didn't really know what to do, so she just turned her head the other way and tried to ignore the fact that the Turk had snuggled up to her in the night.

It took her a couple minutes to register the fact that she was staring at a metal case under the seat. The handle was toward her and she reached for it curiously. Tugging it out from under the seat, it had the Shin-ra logo on the side.

"Hey, Reno." She shook him as she sat up on her knees.

He mumbled something and opened his eyes, looking at her groggily. "What?"

"Is this what you were looking for?" She asked, pointing at the case.

He was wide awake now, scrambling up beside her and leaning over the case. "Where'd you find it?" He asked in excitement.

"It was under the seat." Yuffie replied, watching curiously as he punched in a code and the locks clicked open.

They both stared inside in wonder, the glittering equipment gleaming in the morning sunlight. There were several vials of light green, clear liquid, as well as three syringes and some notes.

"This is it! Yuffie, I love you!" He hugged her happily and slammed the case shut again. He leapt to his feet and brushed his hand through his hair. Picking up her backpack, he shoved the briefcase inside.

"Let's get the fuck out of this city." He grinned down at her as she stared at him in shock.

After a trip to the post office's bathroom and some water splashed on her face, Yuffie was ready for another hellish day. She followed Reno down the fire escape and out into the empty street.

"If we can reach the highway, it should be pretty easy. We can follow it all the way out of the city." He said as they walked along. He put his hands in his pockets and looked up at the sky.

"I know what I'm doing, moving straight to Junon. It's probably safe to say this is the end of Midgar." His voice was low and Yuffie looked over at him sadly.

"The only thing we've got to worry about now is if they choose to bomb the city." He said cheerfully, smiling over at her. She let out a grim laugh.

"I don't have anywhere else to go. I'd rather die than have to go back to Wutai right now." She mumbled. Reno's face fell and she looked away again.

"You could come with me and join the Turks." he laughed and Yuffie hit him upside the head.

"Like I'd really want to be a Turk." She growled.

"Yeah, you're way too violent." He rubbed his head and jumped to the side when she tried to hit him again.

The highway overpass was visible in the distance and Yuffie sighed. It would take them a good two hours to walk that far. From there, it would probably only take five more hours to get out of the city, not bad considering they were right in the middle.

"I know how you feel, my feet hurt just looking at it." He said, gazing ahead at the overpass.

Yuffie jumped back, nearly knocking Reno off his feet as she uttered every curse word she'd ever heard. His eyes widened as he noticed what she had seen, an entire ocean of Midgar's late residents. Some were missing limbs, others didn't have lower jaws, but all of them were covered in blood. They lurched towards them quickly, the ones that tripped were trampled. Reno grabbed her arm and turned on his heel, marching her back down the street.

"Fuck…" There was another large group of the creatures coming up behind them.

"Reno…What do we do?" Yuffie whimpered, she knew today was going to be bad, but not this bad!

"It's fine, don't worry. We can handle this, easy." He said, flashing her a cocky grin.

He shoved her towards an alley to their left and she ran, checking back to see him right behind her. There were a couple of people up ahead of them, eating what looked like a dog. They stopped when they noticed the ninja running towards them and turned their attention to her.

Reno increased his speed and rushing past her, leaping in the air and kicking the woman to the right in the head and sending her flying backwards. He kept running, checking back just in time to see Yuffie throw her giant shuriken at the man, leaping onto his chest to pull it back out. He turned back and jumped over a fallen trash can, pausing when he heard an odd sound behind him.

"Reno!" He spun around, almost tripping in his rush to stop. Staring back, he saw Yuffie collapsed under the weight of another man, who was trying desperately to bite her.

"Reno!" She shrieked, looking up at him in fear.

"Help me!!" he could see the group drawing up close behind her, she didn't have much time.

"Reno!!" She screamed as the man bit into her upper arm. She struggled in panic as a woman appeared from a low window beside her and grabbed her leg. He watched in horror as the woman's teeth tore into her leg and she let out another pained shriek.

It all happened in a blur, before he knew what was going on his foot had collided with the woman's head and he cracked his nightstick down on the man's neck, cleanly snapping it. He bent down and grabbed Yuffie's uninjured arm, dragging her up over his shoulder.

She clung to him desperately as he beat off several more people and grabbed her Conformer out of the man's skull. Shoving his nightstick in his coat pocket, he used her Conformer to slice off offending arms that drifted too near. He turned and dashed back down the alley with the young ninja slung over his shoulders.

**End of Chapter Three**


	4. Dawn of Realization

**Disclaimer: **FFVII belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n: **Yeah, I know, this plotline is so cheesy. But zombie stories have to have cheesy plotlines. It's like a law or something. Sorry, this chapter is a little short. And probably weird and confusing.

I got 2 reviews within fifteen minutes of posting the third chapter, you guys are really good. I love you so much. Please keep reviewing!

**Chapter Four: The Dawn of Realization**

He practically flew down the alley, delivering a kick to a dead teen's face when he reached out to grab him. Gathering his strength, he leapt into the air and grabbed onto the rusted metal bars of a fire escape. He groaned and pulled himself up, weighted down by the wounded ninja draped over his shoulders. His foot finally hit the bottom rung and he swiftly climbed the ladder.

Yuffie let out a whimper from her place on his back and he could feel her blood seeping through his shirt. He dashed up the fire escape ladder, glancing in windows until he found an apartment that appeared empty. Opening the window, the jumped inside. There was a woman in the kitchen, shuffling towards him. He quickly dispatched her with the Conformer and ran down a hall until he found what looked like a guest room. Flinging Yuffie down on the bed, he pulled her backpack off and tossed it aside.

"Oh gods, I'm going to die." She breathed, looking down at the gash in her thigh. Blood seeped out onto the bed and Reno stared down at it.

"Reno, behind you." She said softly. He spun around, taking out his nightstick and slamming it down on the man's shoulder in rage. It was clear the man was dead, but Reno continued to hit him out of pure anger before tossing his body out in the hall and slamming the door.

"You're not going to die, Yuffie." he said, rushing into the bathroom and digging through the cupboards.

He found a roll of gauze, antiseptic, and soaked a towel in water before running back to her side. He quickly cleaned the gash in her leg and poured antiseptic on it. She hissed in pain, but let him clean it with shaking hands. He wrapped gauze over it rather hurriedly and moved to her arm. The towel was soaked in blood, but she wasn't bleeding as badly now. He sat back as she let her hand fall on his as he watched her.

"See? You're gonna be fine." He said, trying to sound confident. She shook her head.

"I'm gonna turn into one of those things and eat you." He wanted to laugh, but somehow he didn't want to believe that she wasn't going to make it.

"No, no…I-I can…" he mumbled, glancing around the room. He spotted the backpack ling on the floor, the metal briefcase barely visible inside. His eyes lit up and he grabbed it in excitement.

"I can give you the antidote!" He yanked it open and pulled out a syringe and one of the vials.

Yuffie stared up at him with hooded eyes, giving the syringe a dirty look. "I hate needles." She groaned.

"Yeah, well, you'll hate being dead more." He replied, filling the syringe with the clear greenish liquid.

"Shit, how much do I give you?" He wondered, looking from the vial to the thin ninja below him.

"Who cares, I'm gonna die anyway." He frowned down at her.

"Shut up…" he growled, sticking the needle into the prominent vein in her arm. She cried out in pain but didn't pull away.

"How much was that?" She howled, staring down at the tiny red dot where the needle had pierced her skin.

"About half this vial…" Reno said sheepishly. Yuffie glared at him.

"You're gonna freaking dilute my blood!" She slapped at him but he leaned away from her.

"You said you didn't care." He accused, putting the syringe to the side.

She fell silent and stared up at the ceiling as her head began to spin. It wasn't long before a pounding headache set in and she gazed at up Reno's blurring face in worry.

"What are you doing?" She mumbled, watching him pull the syringe out of his own arm.

"Might as well use it, huh?" He smiled at her sadly, it was pretty obvious she wasn't feeling too good.

Sweat broke out on her face and she started breathing heavily. The room was spinning and she felt like she would have thrown up if there had been anything in her stomach.

"Reno?" She sighed up at him. He hummed in response.

"Why didn't you just leave me there?"

He stared down at her and knew she couldn't see him anymore. He brought his hand up and brushed some matted hair out of her face.

"You think I'm that heartless?" His voice was low and miserable, she looked so pale.

Smiling grimly, she shook her head.

"Ya know, if you hadn't been a Turk, we probably would have been pretty good friends." She let out a weak laugh as her limbs began to go numb. Reno snorted and took her hand in his.

"Don't be dumb."

He stroked the back of her hand with his thumb as she lost consciousness.

Reno stepped back to look down at her. Shoving his hands in his pockets, he cursed. _'She's not gonna make it.' _Spinning around angrily, he punched the wall beside him, leaving a gaping hole. _'I can't fucking do this.'_

He looked back down at her, not wanting to see the pain etched on her face. Picking up her backpack, he dug around and found some basic supplies. Tossing it aside in distress, he heard an odd thump and spun around to see three kunai sitting on the carpet. He picked them up carefully, running his fingers over the smooth metal. Tying them to his belt, he picked up the briefcase and stomped angrily out of the room.

He paused in the doorway to gaze back at the young ninja. She wasn't breathing. No movement whatsoever. His heart fell at the idea that she might have been strong enough to take it.

Tears stung behind his eyes, but he couldn't figure out why. None fell, he wouldn't go that far.

'_I don't want to see what happens to her…'_

He closed the door behind him.

"I'm going to see that you're executed, Hojo." He growled up at the midday sun once he stepped back out onto the fire escape. Jumping gracefully to the ground, he began the long trek through the back alleys to the overpass.

He'd been walking for two hours. The overpass loomed ahead and he was hungry. So far, he had managed to escape the massive group of dead citizens, three different small coalitions of rotting individuals, a man that had fallen out of a window on top of him, and even a dog that was missing a leg. He sat on a bridge, rubbing the blood from his nightstick with a bit of torn shirt he'd found. A deep growl resonated from within his stomach, and he pressed a hand to it.

"When was the last time I ate anything?" He muttered, shoving himself back up to his feet. The lack of food was starting to take a toll on him, and he sighed. He felt light and he had a massive headache.

'_I just want to get the fuck out of this city.'_ he thought to himself, picking up the briefcase again and continuing on toward the onramp.

He could see several more of the mindless creatures stumbling around in the road ahead, and he picked up a rock in anger.

"Fucking Shin-ra, I ought to quit and move to Wutai!" he cried, hurling the rock and hitting one of the figures in the head with it. It groaned loudly and turned on him.

"Shut up…" He hissed, swinging his nightstick at the creature's head and watching as it fell to the ground.

Another open mouthed, glossy eyed man stumbled over to him, only to receive a vicious kick to the forehead as Reno brushed past. He needed to hurry, he didn't want to get stuck on the highway in the dark with all these blood thirsty monsters wandering around. He shuddered in disgust as he noticed a woman lying on the side of the road, looks like she didn't quite make it…

How could Hojo even engineer a virus that could do this?

'_He's a sick bastard that should be taken out back and shot…'_ Reno thought darkly, envisioning himself beating the famous scientist with his own clipboard.

He looked up as he came to the onramp, sighing miserably at the long uphill hike that was now in store for him. He walked along the sidewalk, sheltered from the actual road by a cement divider. Several vehicles were parked or crashed along the onramp, but not many. It had still been early and he supposed a lot of people hadn't left home yet. What a day to wake up to.

'_The virus must have escaped the night before, it wasn't long before they must have figured out it had been released and sounded the alarm.' _He reasoned, contemplating the day before that had led up to this hellish situation. _'Hojo must have been doing something he shouldn't…Again.' _He was really starting to hate that man, silently hoping that Hojo had infected himself and died before he could escape the lab.

The sun was really starting to heat up, especially on the merciless cement onramp. Reno wiped the sweat from his face as he trudged up towards the unfinished intercity highway.

He took some crackers from his coat pocket and munched thoughtfully as he walked along. What if Shin-ra soldiers were just shooting people on sight under the assumption that they had all been infected? He shook his head, nah, they needed good publicity, they had to at least pretend to be searching for survivors. A distant sound behind him made him spin around.

A helicopter. He held a hand to his eyes to shield the sun as he searched the sky. He spotted it over the city, further back the way he had come. The faint sounds of a machine gun echoed back to him and the helicopter appeared to have landed on top of a building.

He watched it closely and several minutes later it lifted up again and drifted in tight circles over the city.

'_What are they doing?'_ he wondered. _'They look like they're searching for something.'_

After several more minutes of chaotic circling, they drifted over towards him more and he dropped his hand to look up at the black Shin-ra helicopter. Throwing an arm up into the air, he tried to flag them down.

"Hey! Fuckers! Over here!" He shouted. Apparently he had been spotted, as the helicopter slowly drew up to him, hovering high overhead.

The wind whipped around him and he watched as the door slid open. Someone leaned out and held a megaphone to their mouth, waving down at him. He squinted up at the figure curiously.

"Please remain calm! Shin-ra is doing everything in its power to resolve the issue!" He called down to Reno.

'_Not yet they aren't, no bombs have been dropped yet…'_ He slapped a hand to his face.

"What do you mean 'resolve'?! Everybody's already dead!" Reno shouted back at the man, waving his arms angrily.

"Please remain calm!" the man repeated, holding a hand up as if to comfort the distressed redhead below. Reno realized who it was and groaned miserably.

"Palmer, you idiot, it's me, Reno!!" He yelled, holding up his red ponytail as if it was a recognizable trademark. The man waved again.

"Please proceed to the barrier at the end of the highway, the decontamination team can help you!" Reno wanted to rip his hair out as the door slid closed again and the helicopter flew away, leaving the Turk screaming obscenities after it.

"Fine, it's only another ten miles anyway." He said angrily, stomping along the onramp to the highway.

It only took him another half an hour to reach the highway, and he leaned over the railing curiously. The city was nestled far below in the shadow of the enormous overpass. He sat down on the edge for a moment to rest, gazing out across the view.

It was a beautiful city, really. He would probably miss it someday, but with so many bad memories attached to it, he wouldn't feel guilty about moving to Junon. The scenery around him began to shift slightly, and he stumbled.

'_I am so fucking tired and hungry…' _He groaned out loud as he fell to his knees. _'And that sun is not helping in any way.'_

Movement up ahead caught his eye, and he lifted his head to squint into the heat waves radiating off the cement. Several people moved up ahead, scattered around the highway. His stomach flipped as he watched them, more than a hundred feet away and lurching in his direction. He hung his head and sighed.

This was really starting to wear him out. His legs ached, his head was pounding, even his blood seemed to hurt from that injection. He heard footsteps behind him and looked back, his sight blurring slightly.

Someone tripped over the cement divider and tumbled onto the sidewalk behind him. Blood dripped from it and the sounds of it splattering on the cement was almost more than Reno could handle. His stomach flipped in nausea and he swung his nightstick back as it reached for him, breaking its arm. The creature didn't respond and just fell forward again, nearly landing on top of Reno as he scrambled out of its way.

He braced himself against the railing and the nightstick cracked down on the back of the figure's head, leaving it motionless.

Reno fell on his back, looking up into the sky as everything seemed to spin around him. He was vaguely aware of the scuffling noises drawing nearer, but squeezed his eyes shut.

'_Really should have found some food and water before I left town…' _he thought distantly, opening his eyes to look up into the slightly cloudy sky again.

"Hey Yuffie, wouldn't it be funny if we died from Hojo's shitty antidote instead of the virus..?" His voice echoed slightly along the mostly empty highway.

**End of Chapter Four** _Please review!_


	5. Is This a Dream

**Disclaimer: **This was originally going to be an update for another of my stories, and I barely caught that the disclaimer was for Kingdom Hearts, now _that _would have looked funny… And FFVII belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n: **Well of course Yuffie wasn't dead, what kind of fic would this be if I killed off one of the main characters for my own sick amusement?

Oh, I mean, thanks for all the reviews! I'm glad you guys like this story!! This was an amazingly fast update, I was looking forward to this chapter and I got such awesome reviews. Now let's see exactly what's goin on…

**Chapter Five: Is This A Dream…**

The sun beat down on his face and he lay there, eyes closed. He felt dizzy, like the cement below him was moving. The noise of uneven footsteps and groans echoed loudly in his ears, he knew they were getting close now. He couldn't bring himself to care anymore.

A scuffle, the sound of glass breaking, the loud thump as a body hit the ground only ten feet from him. He wondered how many there were, it sounded like a lot.

His eyes slid open curiously as he gazed up at a body poised above him. He stared at it as if it wasn't real, noting the skin missing from one side of the face, the bloodstains covering its neck and chin. It was too short to climb over the divider without real motor skills, so it had collapsed on the side.

'_Great, now I have to stare at it before I can just die.' _he thought bitterly, his hands clenching into fists at his side as another headache pounded through his skull. He winced in pain and screwed his eyes closed, trying to block out the pain.

"What the fuck are you doing? Let's go!"

Reno looked up in complete shock as he was hauled up onto his feet.

Swaying in confusion and nausea, he gripped his head in his hands and squinted around in the bright sunlight. He hissed in pain as someone grabbed his arm and roughly yanked him forward.

"Yuffie?" He groaned in pain, forcing his legs to work as he was dragged down the highway and away from the few people that were still left to hobble after them.

"Well who else would it be, everybody else in this city is already dead!" She spun around to gaze down at him as he lost his balance and tripped, falling to the cement on his hands and knees. She cringed and stepped back as he threw up.

"What's the matter?" She asked, leaning down after a moment and patting his back. Reno just shook his head miserably.

"I feel like shit…" He mumbled as she hauled him up to his feet again.

"Yeah, obviously." Yuffie rolled her eyes and slung his arm over her shoulders to help him move in a straight line.

"Why aren't you dead?" He finally managed to ask, staring ahead at the long stretch of highway in front of them.

"How the hell should I know? I just remember everything going black, then I woke up feeling great. I ran the whole way here and I'm barely even tired!" She beamed at him and her cheery attitude almost made him throw up again.

"Whatever…" He mumbled, forcing himself to keep moving. She helped him walk another mile before he had to stop and rest. Falling down on the ground with his back against the divider, he looked up at Yuffie. She leaned over him, resting her hands on her knees and grinning at him.

"I thought you were gonna be dead by the time I caught up to you." She said in amusement. He scowled up at her.

"You're one to talk, I fucking watched you die." He said, rubbing his face viciously and trying to wake himself up. Her eyes got a little wider, returning to normal before he noticed.

She plopped down beside him and rested her head on his shoulder. She expected him to shove her away, but he didn't move.

"Why were you just laying there? Did you just give up?" She asked quietly. His head started to hurt again and he sighed.

"I don't know…"

She didn't press and further and tried to sit still herself as he rested. Her foot tapped impatiently, but she couldn't help it. She felt like adrenaline was constantly pumping through her veins.

"Ready to go?" She looked up at him, but his head was rested against the cement and he had closed his eyes.

"No." He mumbled.

She pouted angrily and jumped up to pace around him. Walking back and forth, he opened his eyes to watch her. She looked flushed, her hands shook at her sides, and she had a very determined look on her face as she focused on the ground at her feet. He felt himself grin as he watched her and she spun on him.

"What?" She shook her hands and he almost laughed.

"Feeling some side affects?" he asked.

"Come on, let's go!" She pleaded, grabbing his arm and trying to pull him up. He helped her this time, pushing himself up onto his feet and swaying for a moment as he tried to relax.

"Okay, fine." He motioned for her to lead the way and she jumped ahead of him happily.

She bounced ahead of him energetically as he followed her lead down the highway. He found the walk somewhat bearable, only having to stop and rest a few more times before the sun began to set. Yuffie paused to lean out over the railing, eyes wide as she gazed out over the city. She hummed to herself and Reno drew up beside her to see what was so interesting.

"I miss it already." She said sadly.

He glanced over at her, noticing the depressed expression on her face. Her skin glowed orange as the sun faded from view on the far away edge of the city, outlining the buildings in the way.

He patted her back gently, "Come on, the sooner we get out of here the sooner we can start seeing a psychiatrist for all this trauma we're gonna be stuck with."

She nodded and threw herself back again, jumping over the divider and running out into the wide highway. He groaned and forced himself over the divider, barely managing to keep his balance as another headache threatened to split his skull in half. Crying out in pain, he gripped his head and crouched down.

"Hey, you alright?" Yuffie appeared at his side and kneeled down in front of him.

He tried to look up at her, but immediately changed his mind when his muscles began to ache. She reached forward to put a hand on his arm, leaning down to peer into his face.

"Wow, you're really pale." She murmured, brushing her fingers over his skin. Her eyes suddenly widened and she pulled back the collar of his shirt. "Oh, you're really breaking out!" He looked down at his chest, realizing that the skin there was turning red. It felt hot to the touch and he shook as he tried to stand back up.

"Let's hurry…" He said, moving forward past her and ignoring the worried look on her face. "We're getting close anyway." She nodded and leapt after him.

Another onramp was visible up ahead, leading back down into the city one last time before the highway left Midgar and ended up ahead in a construction zone. They hurried along, not wanting to be caught in the city after dark. There was a crash up ahead and Reno stopped in his tracks.

"Yuffie, please tell me that's not what I think it is…" He murmured, staring into the dimming light. Yuffie skidded to a stop several feet ahead, her eyes going wide in horror as she realized what it was.

"Reno, maybe we'd better run." She murmured quietly, hoping the creature hadn't heard them. He swayed slightly as he took out his nightstick, glancing between her and the enormous shadow lumbering toward them.

"If we go back now we'll die for sure, the only way out is past that thing." He gritted his teeth and stared up at it as it loomed above them, mouth opening to reveal rows of sharp teeth. A long tail whipped sluggishly behind it, and part was ripped and falling off as if it had been caught on something without the creature noticing. He glanced over at the horrified look Yuffie was giving the monster. The creature's back arched up and it drew back a massive clawed arm, bringing it crashing down where Yuffie had stood only moments before. She landed gracefully beside Reno and huffed nervously.

"How did it even get infected?" She gasped as it let out a gurgle and blood splattered out onto the ground in front of them. It lurched to the side and Yuffie yanked Reno out of the way as it stumbled over to where they had been.

"Probably by eating people…" Reno mumbled, watching as Yuffie threw her giant Shuriken at the monster's dragon-like face. It cut deep into the skin and left a huge gash, but it didn't react at all. Lurching forward at them.

Reno managed to force his legs to work, dodging the badly done attack and tripping in the middle of the street. He fell to his knees and looked up just in time to see Yuffie catch her Conformer and leap over the thick arm swinging at her. It may be dead and have barely responding muscles, but all the monster really had to begin with was desperate instincts. It wanted to kill and eat, it didn't care how it happened. The nauseous red head pushed himself back up and brushed the dust off of his uniform. It seemed more than entranced with the energetic ninja bouncing around it, and Reno stood there watching it for several moments as he tried to think of how to kill it. It was absolutely massive, there wasn't much they could really do, and it could outrun them in a single step if it came down to retreat.

"Yuffie! Go for the spine! Paralyze it!" Reno shouted at the thin girl.

She looked over at him and nodded, leaping straight up and over an enormous paw, landing on the creature's upper arm and leaping up to its face. It groaned, the deep resonating sound vibrating all around them in the early night. The scene began to spin and Reno stepped back, a headache hitting him like a sledgehammer. His knees buckled as the world began to turn upside down and he was vaguely aware of Yuffie screaming at him from the swirling darkness.

He looked up just in time to see a huge claw coming down right over his head, and he stumbled and rolled to the side as it slammed into the car behind him, sending glass shards flying through the air. His face was wet and as he rubbed his arm across his mouth, he realized his nose was bleeding. Something hit him in the side and sent him flying across the overpass, tumbling over the cement until he slammed into the guardrail. Clutching his head in pain and trying to ignore how badly that had really hurt, he glanced around and swore loudly.

A young woman leapt at him from a car window, an arm was missing and it looked like most of her hair had been ripped out. He swung his nightstick at her, hitting her more on accident as his vision blurred and he clutched his eyes shut.

Several moments later, the car went soaring over his head and he looked up at the monster in shock. He groaned and climbed back up to his feet, rushing towards it in anger.

"Hurry up, Yuffie!" He howled, leaping into the air and landing on the monster's wide nose. Its face was scaly, and he slipped several times before he managed to climb over on top of its head to glare down at Yuffie. She was perched on the back of its neck, gripping a handful of dark fur as she swung her Conformer at the thick skin.

"Would you rather try to knock its head off with your stupid stick? You try cutting through four inch bone!" She cried, taking the time to flip him off.

"Fine, give me that." He swung over to her and the creature thrashed violently, nearly sending the two flying off of it. Grabbing onto its fur, Reno slammed against the young ninja painfully. Taking her place at the base of its neck, he grabbed her Conformer and set to work, stabbing and swinging at it angrily.

There was another violent thrash and Yuffie shrieked, loosing her footing as she tumbled down onto the cement. It began trying to roll over, and Reno held onto its fur tightly.

"A distraction would be nice!" He called out, waving at the girl to do something constructive while in the monster's sight. She looked angry, but ran forward into the creature's view as it tried to shake Reno off. It immediately swatted at her, and she easily leaped over its arm. Her energy was beginning to wear off and she panted, wiping the sweat from her forehead. She paused to a moment as the creature reared back to let out another throaty gurgle.

Something hit her in the shoulder and she cried out in pain. Rubbing her arm, she looked down in surprise. _'Reno's nightstick…'_ She glanced up at him but he was busy hacking away at the mass of bones protecting their only means of killing the monster. A low moan made her hair stand on end and she suddenly realized why he'd thrown her his weapon. She snatched it up just as a body collided with her heavily, knocking her off balance. She swung it at his head desperately, wriggling away quickly as she felt teeth graze her shoulder. It took several swings before she managed to do any damage with it, and she looked up as that huge paw descended on her again.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, she rolled aside and leapt to her feet, dashing across the overpass to hide behind the only vehicle left in the area. She huddled behind it, peeking around the edge to watch the creature search stupidly for her. It turned slowly and advanced on the small car, its mouth hanging open and blood dripping out onto the ground. She grimaced in disgust as she watched it, backing up when it started to get too close. _'I'm really getting tired…' _She thought, brow furrowing as she strained to see if Reno was even on the monster's back anymore.

She gasped as it's claws came down only feet away from her and it started to shake. Letting out another disturbing gurgle, it collapsed in a heap and Reno was thrown forward over its head. Yuffie cried out in relief and rushed over to the Turk, leaping on him happily. She hugged him tightly and he stared down at her in worry.

"Are you alright?" He asked, brushing himself off again and handing her the bloodstained Conformer. She beamed up at him for a second before she realized what she was doing. Blushing profusely, she jumped back and took her weapon.

"Aw, it's dull…" She muttered, focusing all of her attention on it. Reno shrugged and started to walk away.

"I'm getting the fuck out of here…" He called over his shoulder, trying to ignore how much his muscles ached.

They walked around a gentle curve in the highway and Yuffie started to bounce excitedly. "Lights!" She clapped her hands together and Reno stared ahead at what appeared to be the barricade. _'Yeah, great…'_ He didn't want to know what Shin-ra had in store for them next.

**End of Chapter Five**


	6. You Never Know

**Disclaimer: **See previous disclaimers…

**A/n: **All this talk about plot twists, goodness. I am gonna be so sad when this story is over, maybe I'll just have to write a sequel later on… Of course we still have a few more good chapters to go. And don't worry, the fun's not over yet. This chapter seems kind of boring... But it was necessary.

**Chapter Six: You Never Know**

They hadn't walked more than twenty feet towards the barricade when Reno let out a gasp and clutched his hands to his head. Crying out in pain, he stumbled to the side and fell, landing painfully on his knees. Yuffie rushed to his side. Placing a hand on his back, she leaned down and tried to get him to look at her. He could see her lips moving and she was panicking, but he couldn't hear anything. His chest felt like it was on fire.

She was screaming his name now, looking around desperately as he went limp and fell onto his side. She quickly rolled him onto his back and put her ear against his chest. His heart was beating alarmingly fast. She brushed her hands along his skin, it felt like it was burning. His breathing was weak, but at least he was still alive. She looked around again to see if there was anything to help him with. All they had was the antidote, and she had watched him take it…

A bright light appeared in front of her and she reeled back, holding a hand over her eyes as it pierced the darkness. Poised protectively over Reno's unconscious form, she stared ahead. The sound of rushed footsteps sounded all around her and she looked up to see a soldier pointing a gun at her head. Another man in a lab coat walked up and leaned over her.

"Please, help us! We brought the antidote all the way from Shin-ra, but my friend is hurt! He's a Turk, see?" Yuffie whimpered, showing them Reno's Shin-ra I.D. card and picking up the briefcase. "We're not infected, please!" The man in the coat looked into her eyes for several moments before leaning down and taking Reno's pulse. He examined the Turk's face and turned back towards the barricade.

"Take them to decontamination." He muttered to the soldier beside Yuffie.

She was hauled roughly to her feet and the briefcase was yanked out of her arms. She twisted in the soldier's grip, watching worriedly as two soldiers picked up Reno's limp body and began to follow her.

**xXx**

A blurry form moved around above him as the bright lights pierced into his vision. He strained to make his eyes focus, and another person across the room appeared. He tried to lift his hand, but it felt heavy.

"What's going on?" He growled, his eyes adjusting as he stared around at the white room. There was in incessant beeping nearby and he knew he was hooked up to some kind of machine.

"Relax, Reno, you're in the Shin-ra decontamination camp outside Midgar." A familiar voice echoed in the room and as he stared at the figure poised above him he realized it was Rufus.

"What happened?" He asked blankly, looking down at the bed he was in. There was an IV in his arm and he winced as he tried to move.

"You had an amazingly rare allergic reaction to my antidote." Hojo said, appearing behind Rufus with a smug grin.

'_Yeah, amazingly rare, you mean a kink?' _Reno kept his mouth shut, after disobeying Rufus like he had, he was lucky they had tried to save him at all.

"You're very lucky we found you in time, another couple of hours and your entire system may have been poised." Rufus added.

"How did I even get here?" He asked, relaxing against his pillow.

"A patrol found you along the highway, you were unconscious at the time, but that Avalanche ninja was with you." Rufus replied, giving him a quizzical look.

"Yuffie! Where is she?" He shot up, glancing around the room in worry.

Hojo waved it off. "She's still in decontamination." he grinned darkly and Reno glared at him.

"The antidote worked very well, I must say. Your cells are actually capable of devouring the virus. Turns out it worked better as a vaccination. We extracted some blood and we were actually able to engineer a vaccine from it, however, it's too late for the city. Most people that we found still alive were too infected to recover…" he wouldn't look at Rufus as the Shin-ra president glowered at his top scientist.

"But Yuffie is clean, right? Let her go!" Reno demanded, trying to unhook himself from the machine and climb out of the bed.

"Yes, well, given the situation we can't release her. She knows too much about the operation. As far as the public knows, Shin-ra was not responsible for the virus." Rufus said sternly.

Reno glanced between the two men blankly. _'She could bring down the entire company, huh? They'll probably just kill her when this is all over with.' _He needed to make a plan, demanding her freedom would only get him killed alongside her. He just gave his president an understanding nod and relaxed back against the bed.

"Were there any other survivors?" he asked softly.

"Yes, there were maybe a dozen that we found in time to save." Rufus said. "I've got to go check over things, but it's good to know that you made it out alright. I wouldn't expect anything less from one of my Turks." He gave Reno a smug look as he walked out of the room. He opened the door and for a moment he could see Rude standing on the other side. He gave his partner a brief wave before the door closed again.

**xXx**

It looked more like a prison than a decontamination camp. There were trailers set up everywhere, and a hastily constructed lab. Most of it had been flown in from Junon. He walked around for a while, enjoying the feel of his clean new uniform and the fresh air. Finally, he could just relax and not have to worry about something jumping out and attacking him.

But there were problems that he needed to resolve.

He wandered over to the lab, showing the soldiers guarding it his Shin-ra I.D. They opened the doors for him and he walked down the hallway. He found the research center and went inside. Several doors lined one wall, with small windows in the wall beside them. He walked along them, ignoring the guards staring him down as he glanced in the windows.

There was a little girl in one, curled up on her bunk miserably. She glanced up when he walked by, and a look of fear appeared on her face. He tried to ignore it, walking past the cells and seeing each of the people inside, trapped against their will. They all looked miserable, a mother and her little baby, a man, a small boy, and finally, Yuffie. She was on the end in a specially marked cell all by herself.

He leaned against the window for several minutes, watching her as she rested against the wall. She looked up after a while and noticed him there. A look of joy spread across her face and she rushed over to the window, pressing a hand against it. She was talking, but he couldn't hear her through the glass. He knew she was asking if he could help her, and he shook his head sadly, motioning towards the guards behind him. Her face fell and he stepped back. He started to leave and she pressed her face against the glass, trying to call him back. He ignored her, walking back out into the hall and outside.

**xXx**

It had been three days. Three grueling days of wandering around the perimeter, watching the handful of survivors in their cells, and assisting the barricade when people that had flocked to Midgar to check on their loved ones demanded to know what was going on. He was now assigned to following the young president around as he oversaw the departure for Junon. Their work here was done, nothing else could help, he was bored with the project and wanted to move on. Reno watched him with growing hatred as trailers were hauled away by large trucks and helicopters descended to pick up the Shin-ra employees. A small camp was being left behind to monitor Midgar for the next few months, at least until they could be sure there were no other survivors. He wasn't sure he even wanted to know what they were going to do to Midgar when it was all over.

He heard someone calling his name as he gazed out across the disheveled campsite. Turning towards the voice, he noticed Rude standing beside a helicopter, calling him over. It was time to go.

He curled up along the wall and kept to himself as the helicopter lurched beneath them and they started the flight to Junon. Elena was seated across from him, watching him with slight worry before diverting her attention back to Rufus.

He wondered what had happened to Yuffie, she had been moved after he saw her in the lab, and the guards had refused to tell him where. But it didn't matter, he would find a way to make them pay without her if he had to.

**xXx**

It took him another week just to find her. Hojo was definitely trying to keep her a secret. If he wasn't a Turk, Reno was sure he would be locked up right beside her for more of Hojo's stupid science projects. This was really starting to grate his nerves.

There was another door in the Junon lab, it was locked with a security code that he had gotten out of a drunk soldier in the bar at around one in the morning. Not only had he unwittingly told Reno the code, he had let slip that that's where they were keeping Avalanche's youngest member. All too easy. Of course, it had taken him long enough to track down the right guard and buy him drinks without looking suspicious.

He gazed down at the computer screen in front of him, searching the Shin-ra database. There wasn't much he could do with his clearance, but it was enough. Scrolling down the page, he opened up a search box and typed in 'strife'.

His eyes lit up when the database found only one contact, Cloud Strife. It listed his phone number and the address of Tifa's bar back in Midgar. He crossed his fingers as he wrote down the number and closed the page.

"Reno? What are you doing?" He spun around when Elena's tired voice broke the silence. She rubbed her face and took a sip from a cup of coffee clutched in her hand.

"Nothing, looking up a girl's number. Why? You wanna join us?" He grinned at her and her face paled at the thought.

"Sick, no." She spun on her heel and stomped out of the room, leaving Reno to breathe a sigh of relief.

He shut down the computer and walked out of the room. _'I can't believe Shin-ra went this far…' _He thought angrily. He had always prided himself in being a faithful employee, but now he wasn't so sure it was anything to be proud of. The thought of all those thousands of people dying because of Hojo's newest toy made him sick.

Turning down a hallway, he slammed a door open and stepped out into the cold night air. The stars glittered high above him, a rare sight in Midgar. His breath puffed up in a cloud in front of him as he stepped out onto the sidewalk. The sea stretched out in front of him, the waves breaking against the metal walls lining the city's front. Reno looked up at the sky again as he walked along, wondering if this city would meet a similar fate if he couldn't find a way to stop Hojo.

Taking a key out of his pocket, he unlocked the unfamiliar door and threw it open. His new apartment. It was lonely and barren inside, with only a couch, a TV, a table in the kitchen, and a bed. He threw off his coat and walked into the bedroom, falling onto the bed miserably.

**xXx**

Bright morning sunlight filtered in through his shade less windows, blinding him as he turned around to see if there was anything simple to make for breakfast. He resigned himself to just cooking some eggs and getting the hell out of there.

He put the pan on the stove and walked into the living room. Rufus had given him a cell phone and he picked it up, looking it over for a few moments. He shook his head, that would be too stupid. Of course Rufus would have someone watch to see who his Turks called. He rushed through breakfast and left his dishes on the table, he had a mission today.

An hour later, he watched from his seat beside Rude as the helicopter lifted up into the air, the ground dropping out from under them. He gripped his seat and stared down at the new Shin-ra headquarters. _'Hang on, Yuffie, I'm gonna sort this out.'_

"You alright? You seem off since you got back."

His eyes shot over to the large man beside him, his deep monotone voice breaking the awkward silence. He shrugged and sighed.

"I don't know, it was really…" He trailed off and a somewhat traumatized expression came over his face.

"Where are we going, anyway?" He asked, looking out the window at the ocean flying by beneath them.

"You weren't paying attention?" Rude asked, raising an eyebrow. Reno snorted.

"Do I ever, I mean really?" He replied, throwing himself back in the seat and enjoying the ride.

"We're going to Nibelheim. Rufus wants us to pick up some of Hojo's old records on Jenova." He replied, not taking his eyes off the ocean spread out in front of them.

'_How ironic…' _Reno thought to himself.

The ride didn't take too long, and they reached Nibelheim before lunch. Landing the helicopter on the front lawn of the Shin-ra mansion, Rude looked around.

"Hey, I'll be right in, I'm gonna go get some food real quick." Reno said, moving off towards the small town. Rude gave him an odd look, but nodded, it's not the mission needed both of them anyway.

"Don't take your time." He said to the red head as he jogged down the path to the town.

He waited until Rude was out of sight before pulling the piece of paper out of his pocket. He glanced up at a small Inn and hurried inside. There was a young woman sitting at the counter and he walked up to her and smiled.

"Can I use your phone?" He asked sweetly.

"Ten gil." She muttered, popping her bubble gum.

"Ten gil? I could get a freaking room for that much!" Reno complained. She shrugged and he threw the money at her and picked up the phone.

He punched in the number scribbled on the paper and waited. And waited. No one picked up so he tried again. It rang four more times before he heard a click and an irritated voice came through the other side.

"Who is this?"

Reno sighed in relief.

"Cloud, it's Reno." He heard a curse from the other side.

"What is it?" He sounded more interested now, but Reno nearly cringed at the irritation evident in his voice. He drew in a deep breath before deciding to continue.

"Tifa's dead, Cloud…" There was more cursing and it sounded like the phone had been dropped.

"What?!" It was a new voice and he could hear Cloud arguing with someone in the background.

"That virus that hit Midgar, Tifa didn't make it. I'm sorry." He said hurriedly, glancing around the lobby for a moment. The girl at the counter scooted away from him and disappeared around the corner.

"Shit…" There was the sound of a door slamming in the background.

"Well… what about the brat? She was stayin' with Tifa, wasn't she?" He sighed sadly.

"Yuffie's okay, but Shin-ra has her." He managed to get out before he heard the phone get yanked out of the man's grip.

"What do you want, Reno? You wouldn't just tell us this without wanting something." It was Cloud again. He slapped a hand to his forehead.

"What Shin-ra did was disgusting, I want to see them pay for it, but I need your help. Exposing Shin-ra and Hojo for what they really did is all I want, and in return I can get Yuffie for you." He let a grin cross his face, bringing down Shin-ra would be enough motivation alone. There was talking in the background again.

"Alright, but we go by _my_ plan." Cloud said sharply.

**End of Chapter Six **


	7. Halfway

**Disclaimer: **Final Fantasy VII belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n:** I can't believe how long it's been since I updated this story, I feel really awful about that. But anyway, I have the flu, so I'm not going much of anywhere. Lots of time to finish up this story now. Well, here's the newest chapter, sorry it's so late, and I really hope you like it. Please review!

**Chapter Seven: Halfway.**

Reno stood poised in the large window overlooking the ocean. A red light flashed about his head, and as the female voice came over the intercom to announce the state of emergency Junon was in he sighed. Time to get to work.

The door flew open and Elena stood there, breathless with her gun drawn.

"Reno! What are you doing? Avalanche is attacking! Get your ass out there!" She brushed her short hair from her face and fumed at him.

He gave her a playful smile and whipped out his nightstick. "A direct attack, huh? Any idea what they're hoping to accomplish?"

She seemed taken aback by his calm tone, but shook it off and glared at him. "I have no idea, but it's kind of an emergency. So anytime you decide to go ahead and do your job, that would be great."

He could tell she wanted to shoot him, but there was a deafening boom and several soldiers ran by the opened door. Elena eyed him once again before stepping back into the hall and dashing after them.

Reno hesitated for a moment, contemplating what to do. The attack seemed to be coming from the east side of the city, drawing attention away from the laboratories. Cloud didn't trust him, he was giving them an option to complete the mission without his help. And he was severely underestimating how well Yuffie would be guarded.

No one seemed to notice as he ran in the complete wrong direction. He shoved past groups of surprised soldiers and dashed down corridors. He threw open the door to the stairs, deciding that using the elevator could be a really bad idea.

He jogged up several floors until he found the door he was looking for, throwing it open and startling several confused scientists as they waited for the elevator. he paused for a moment, looking back over his shoulder at a frightened young woman. She yelped in surprise as he snatched the security pass from around her neck, snapping the thin chain and quickly turning to continue down the hall. The hallway branched out in several places, and he started jogging again trying to find the right door.

Reno turned a corner and up ahead he could see two soldiers guarding the entrance to one of the labs. He tightened his grip on the nightstick and slowed his pace as he approached them.

"We need to see some ID." The guard on the left stated cautiously, eyeing the weapon in his hand.

"You know who I am." Reno growled threateningly. He moved forward to swipe the card in the lock when the guard on the right grabbed his arm.

"We still need to see some ID, not even Turks have clearance into this lab." He said solidly. Reno scowled at the annoying setback, his foot shooting out to catch the soldier in the chest and send him reeling backwards.

The other soldier cried out in alarm and was quickly silenced when the nightstick connected with the side of his head. Reno quickly swiped the security card and the door slid open.

No one had noticed the attack on the guards yet, and he hurried down another long corridor, coming out at the top of a short stair case overlooking a vast lab. Several flustered assistants rushed back and forth, trying to finish up before evacuating the lab. They barely took notice of Reno as he walked across the room. There was a sealed door nearby with a security lock. A thin window at eye level revealed a short hallway on the other side, with four doors on each side.

He paused to see if anyone was going to try and stop him. A very nervous young woman bit her lip as she glanced over at him, but seemed to decide that evacuating the building was more important. Swiping the card he had taken earlier, the door beeped and clicked as the doorknob unlocked, letting him slowly push the door open and slide inside.

He hurried along the new hallway, checking the window in each door before finally stopping at the sixth one. Yuffie was inside, huddled up against the wall. She looked cold, the only protection from the harsh walls and floor of her cell a small white tunic. Another slide of the card and the door unlocked. He watched her carefully as he opened the door, but she didn't seem to know he was there.

Several steps into the small room and he kneeled down at her side, lifting up her chin in his hand an peering into her blank grey eyes. He called her name softly, but she didn't even blink.

Reno let out a loud curse and pulled her to her feet. She swayed slightly and dug her fingers into his shirt, resting her head on his chest miserably. He slid his coat off and wrapped it around her shoulders before hoisting her into his arms and walking back into the hall.

The lights were flickering when he reached the main hallway, and he glanced around at the scattered people rushing towards the emergency exit. Whatever Avalanche had attacked, apparently it was vital.

Kicking open the door to the stairs, he ran down them three at a time. Yuffie let out a choked groan and he tightened his grip on her thin shoulders, pausing to lean over the railing, only to see soldiers far below them rushing upwards. The faint sounds of shouting echoed up to them, and Reno cursed again and looked around for another exit. There was a door several floors down, and he dashed down the stairs and kicked it open.

From there it only took another ten minutes of weaving down hallways and staircases to reach a side door leading out into an alley cutting through the buildings. Wind whipped past them through the opening, and Reno pulled the young ninja closer as he checked up and down the alley to make sure no one was around.

"Reno…" Yuffie's weakened voice nearly started him and he quickly pulled her up to see her face.

"Yuffie! Can you hear me?" Her eyes weren't focusing, and she seemed to pass out moments later, going completely limp in his arms.

He didn't waste any time, running down the alley, he peered around the corner to see soldiers rushing down the street. Something exploded not far out of his sight and he ducked back around the corner, sliding down against the wall to rest Yuffie in his lap.

He waited several minutes to make sure the soldiers were occupied and stood up again, cradling the thin girl in his arms. No one was in sight when he stepped out from the shadow of the building and started walking away from all the commotion. There was another explosion and he winced, turning to see smoke begin billowing from one of the higher floors. The sound of engines reached his ears and he looked up to see the Highwind appear overhead.

Reno kneeled down, bracing Yuffie as he used one hand to find his phone. It only rang once before it was picked up.

"Reno?" Cloud sounded extremely stressed.

"I have Yuffie, we're right under you." He glanced down the street to see a swarm of soldiers emerge from the building, most of them collapsing on the pavement soon afterward.

"Can you get her up the ladder?" Cloud seemed a bit more interested now and Reno looked up to see the Highwind descending very carefully.

"Yea, just hurry up before someone picks a fight." He clicked his phone off and shoved it in his pocket, hoisting the ninja over his shoulder as the ladder hit the street in front of him.

There was shouting down the street and he knew someone had noticed. He dashed forward, jumping up onto the ladder and pulling himself up. Yuffie seemed quite a bit heavier with only one arm to climb with, and he strained to pull them up faster as the Highwind started to take off again.

Gunshots began echoing off the buildings around them and he turned to look down at the soldiers far below him. Someone shouted an order and another barrage of bullets barely missed him as he rushed to haul the ninja up to the ship.

He felt the ladder move and looked up to see Cloud and Barret pulling it up. There was a shout from below and he glanced back. Rude and Elena were standing there in disbelief, staring up at him. Elena called his name, and he paused to wave sweetly to her. She looked over at Rude for a moment and looked back up at him, breathing out a curse an aiming her gun.

There were three gunshots and Reno gritted his teeth in pain, pulling a knee up a step to help hold on to Yuffie as his arm gave out. They were almost to the ship, and as they reached the railing Cloud reached out and grabbed him, a look of concern crossing his face when he noticed the blood streaming down Reno's arm.

Barret took Yuffie and set her on the floor, leaning down to see if she was breathing as Cloud called for help.

"That fuckin' bitch shot me!" Reno yelled, puling his shirt off to see how bad it was.

"It's only grazed, you'll be fine." He looked up to see Cid looming over him with a first aid kit.

Reno sighed and accepted a wet cloth Cloud offered him, holding it against the wound. "Wasn't that distraction kind of overkill?" Cloud turned away from him and disappeared through the doorway.

"I believe Cloud was thinking more along the lines of revenge." Reno's gaze snapped over to see Vincent leaned over the unconscious ninja.

Reno scooted over to check on her. "I think she's just sedated, she should wake up in a few hours."

He watched as Barret kneeled down to pick her up, looking down at her sadly before turning to take her into the ship.

"Why did you do that?" Vincent asked suddenly. Reno looked over at him in slight confusion.

"What do you mean?" He asked blankly. "Shin-ra took it too far this time-"

"Risking your life to save Yuffie would have been irrelevant to exposing Shin-ra. All you needed to do was tell us where the files were in the Shin-ra headquarters. There is some underlying reason which you are not telling us." It was the most outspoken he had ever seen Vincent, and he crossed his arms almost threateningly as he stared down at the now ex Turk.

Reno wasn't sure what to say, he hadn't even considered leaving Yuffie there like that.

"Look, I don't want anything from you, it just didn't seem right to leave her there after she helped me out of the city. Maybe I just wanted an excuse to get away from Shin-ra, I don't know." He didn't like the way Vincent was staring at him, so he busied himself with wrapping bandages around his injured bicep.

"Turks are not trained to work for charity. I wasted many years being taught to depend on those I was to protect. Perhaps you are simply unsure of who you are supposed to be protecting." His cryptic tone was starting to make him nervous, and he pushed himself up to his feet.

"Maybe I was just really bad at being a Turk." he said bitterly, locking eyes with the vampiric man.

Vincent nodded knowingly. "For your sake, let us hope that is the case." He turned and walked smoothly into the ship, leaving Reno to think.

**xXx**

Yuffie slowly opened her eyes, staring around her in shock. The white walls of the small room were nearly blinding in the morning light, and she threw herself from the bed in panic. Her bare feet hit the cold metal floor and she shrieked, leaping back onto the bed and wrapping her arms around herself as she tried to calm down.

She looked around her again, finally realizing where she was and relaxing against the wall. Creeping forward, she found a small stack of clothing on the floor and sorted through it. It was mostly old clothing that she left on the airship just in case, complete with an old pair of boots that were more than slightly worn.

"Lovely, hand-me-downs to myself…" She muttered, settling on her old tan pair of shorts and a soft green shirt with sleeves to her elbows. She hurried to the door and tossed it open, already feeling queasy from the gentle movements of the floor beneath her feet.

She rushed down the hall and across the hold to the exit, not even hesitating as she threw open the door and burst out into the fresh morning air.

"You're awake."

She stared out across the deck in surprise, the red headed man looking over his shoulder at her as he leaned on the railing.

"Reno.. What are you doing here?" She stepped forward awkwardly, glancing around to see if anyone else was out there with him.

"Cloud let me join your little club, considering I got shot breaking you out of the Junon Shin-ra base." He pointed at his bandaged arm for emphasis as she eyed him carefully.

"You broke into the lab and whisked me away to safety?" She stared up at him seriously for a moment before bursting into laughter. "That's insane, you're joking, right?" She stopped laughing when she noticed the angry look on his face as he turned away from her.

"Oh Leviathan, you didn't really, did you?" She stepped closer to peer up into his face when he didn't answer.

He turned and gave her a grin, pulling the security pass from his pocket and flashing it in her face. "I've been kicked out of bars that were harder to get into." Yuffie paled for a moment.

"Why would you do that? I thought you hated me." She blurted out, stepping forward to grip the railing beside him.

"There's a lot of other people that I hate a lot more." He admitted, smiling as he stared out across the mountains below.

Yuffie felt herself blush, biting her lip for a moment as she thought about it. Leaning over his arm, she kissed his cheek and jumped back.

"Well, I gotta go, um.. talk to people." She said quickly, slipping through the door as he turned to look at her.

**End of Chapter Seven**

_Sorry if it sucked, I've been in a writing slump lately…And I'm going to start working on the next chapter right now._


	8. Family

**Disclaimer: **FF7 belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n: **I'm really sorry this is so late, it was a bitch to write and I'm really lazy. I have this awful habit of writing mainly when there's something seriously important I need to be doing instead. Like right now I'm supposed to be packing for a move tomorrow, and it's nowhere near done, so it's the perfect time to write!

**Chapter Eight: Family.**

There was a loud explosion and Yuffie shielded her face, ducking down behind the railing. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she looked up as Cloud hauled her to her feet. Small bits of debris scattered across the deck of the Highwind and she stepped back quickly when a sheet of metal slammed into the floor in front of her.

"Get ready, we've got to make this quick." He said sharply, gripping the railing tightly as the building below them loomed closer into view.

"This is insane, I can't believe you call this a plan." Yuffie mumbled, looking around at the grim faced group of men. She felt slightly out of place, being the only remaining female member of the group, and stuck close to Red XIII. She dug her fingers into his thick fur and he looked back at her.

"Are you feeling nervous?" He asked, his tail whipping back and forth as the ship lowered down over the city.

"I almost died trying to get out of this damn city and now we're fighting to get back in." She groaned, looking down at the giant four pointed shuriken replacing her lost Conformer.

"Don't worry, we will protect you." Red XIII reassured her. She smiled down at him and felt her stomach jump threateningly as the ship lurched to the side. Well, at least if she had to go back in, she had the planet's greatest fighters to protect her. Not that she _needed_ protection.

A Shin-ra helicopter rose up beside the Highwind, circling around the deck before disappearing from sight again.

"Get ready." Cloud said, staring down at the huge balcony below them. "Let's go."

He said it so softly, she almost didn't heard him. Clearing the railing easily, Yuffie stared down as he landed on the helicopter landing pad nearly twenty feet down. He was closely followed by Barret, and Red XIII jumped easily over the edge to follow them.

Vincent braced a foot against the railing before looking back at Reno suspiciously. In a flash of red, he disappeared over the edge after Cait Sith, leaving the young ninja alone with the newest ex-Turk to join Avalanche.

Reno leaned forward, watching as the Avalanche members dashed down the balcony and broke out a window on the other side, slipping into the building just before the Shin-ra helicopter came back around to shoot at them. The sounds of the guns were almost deafening, and Yuffie crouched back down behind the railing as the helicopter flew by. Reno fell to one knee beside her, bracing an arm around her back as the Highwind began to turn sharply.

"We gotta go!" He yelled over the boom of the guns. Yuffie looked at him like he was crazy, but a split second later the helicopter was out of view around the massive airship and she peeked over the rail at the balcony again. He shook her shoulder and she stared at him with wide eyes, hand tightening on her shuriken almost desperately.

"It'll be okay, trust me!" He yelled again so she could here him. He leaned down further to look into her eyes. Her mouth was open slightly as she panted, almost glaring at him when he tried to get her to stand up.

"This is insane, we're going to die!" She shouted accusingly, like it was his fault she was in this mess. He laughed and pulled her up, glancing down at the platform slowly falling away beneath them.

The Highwind was pulling away, and she shrieked in surprise when Reno grabbed her arm and yanked her over the railing with him.

Reno landed easily on his feet, but Yuffie landed hard and rolled haphazardly, winding up on her stomach before jumping to her feet.

"Come on!" She looked up as Reno grabbed her hand, pulling her towards the window as the helicopter started to make its way back towards them.

The building was dark, and she tripped on something as her eyes struggled to adjust to the change.

"Are you alright?" Reno asked, leaning in close to try and see her face in the dark. His breath danced over her cheek and she shivered.

"I'm fine, I just can't see anything." She mumbled, brushing some dust off her clothes.

"Are you scared?" he asked, noticing the nervous tone in her voice.

"No, I'm not scared! I'm just not keen on rushing into a dark building full of walking dead people!" She said in a hushed voice.

Yuffie waited several moments, but he wasn't backing off. A blush started to color her face when she realized what he was thinking, and she struggled not to just run away. The sensation of his lips brushing over hers almost made her jump, and he paused to think about what he was doing another moment before leaning in against her.

"Were you two planning on coming?"

Yuffie jumped sharply as Vincent's voice reached out from the darkness. He didn't seem irritated, but Yuffie realized immediately that he was being protective over her. She nodded meekly and started forward, thankful that it was too dark for the two men to see her blushing.

"Do you know where to look for files concerning the virus?" Vincent asked once Reno walked by him.

"My guess would be in the lab, that's where Hojo spent pretty much all of his time." He replied, watching Yuffie's awkwardly hunched form as she trudged along in front of the men, muttering a curse every so often as she tripped on something hidden in the darkness.

"Lead the way." Cloud muttered to Reno as they caught up with the rest of the group. He nodded to the other man and stepped forward, walking down the hall like he had every day for the past few years.

They walked along in silence, Red XIII beside Reno in case they came across anything they couldn't see. Yuffie was starting to feel nervous, and found herself leaning closer to Vincent as it started to get darker. There were no windows, so the only light in the hallway was what managed to filter in through the windows they had come in through.

Reno stopped, and if it hadn't been for his muttered curse, Cloud would have ran into him in the darkness. He reached forward and ran a hand over the wall, tracing it down several paces until he found what he was looking for.

"Power's out, elevators are down, we're taking the stairs." He said simply, throwing open the door he'd found and closing his eyes as a gust of wind hit him in the face. It brought with it the foul stench of death, and Yuffie nearly threw herself against Vincent trying to get away from the smell. She howled instead and backed against the wall, drawing odd stares from the other members of the group.

"There's no way I'm going down there!" Yuffie shrieked, hands over her nose even as the scent began to fade in the air.

"You'll be fine, come on." Cloud growled, fumbling in the dark before grabbing her arm and pulling her forward.

"I can't even see where the hell I'm going." She mumbled, nose wrinkled in disgust as she was forced through the doorway.

Her boots clanked loudly on the metal floor, and she couldn't help but stare over the edge as Cloud released her arm to brush past her. There was a glow from somewhere down below them, and a faint blue light cast a weak outline around them.

"Almost there." Reno whispered in her ear, grinning teasingly at her before starting down the stairs with the others. Her hand darted out almost involuntarily when she realized she was now at the back of the group, and she grabbed his sleeve.

He spun around when she pulled him back, and for a second she thought he was angry. She almost jumped when his hand fell on her shoulder, hesitating slightly before sliding down to her back. He led her forward, pushing her in front of him as they hurried to catch up to the group.

Reno cursed silently to himself, going over the situation again and again in his head. He didn't know what his problem was, he had sworn he would never fall for a girl. He hadn't even had a real girlfriend since he left school to join Shin-ra. A Turk couldn't afford to be attached.

The thought made his breath catch in his throat as the realization of what had happened to his life in the past few days hit him full force.

He _wasn't_ a Turk anymore. He _could_ get attached now, with no consequences. He didn't have to do what anyone told him to do, no more risking his life for anyone unless he felt like it. His hand tightened on the back of Yuffie's shirt, and she glanced back at him curiously.

He had to admit, he had never really gone for Wutain girls before. But Yuffie was just so _different_. She was cute, but clumsy and obnoxious, tended to tell stupid jokes, and didn't seem to plan things out very well. Come to think of it, they had a lot in common.

"That door, right there!" Reno cried out to Cloud, pointing despite the dim lighting as the blonde haired swordsman reached the bottom of another flight of stairs. He nodded and kicked the door, sending it flying open and slamming into the hallway wall.

Yuffie knew something was horribly wrong when Cloud hesitated with his hand on his sword. His eyes were wide and he stared into the room in shock. Reno and Yuffie reached the group and pushed their way forward to see what Cloud and the others were so horrified about, only to find the opposite end of the hallway teeming with rotting corpses.

Corpses, that were, of course, walking towards them.

"Well what did you expect?!" Reno howled, darting forward and slamming his trusty nightstick into someone's head and sending their decaying body reeling into the wall. It twitched for a moment and lay still, and the reunited Avalanche members jumped into action.

Cloud had no problem ridding the hallway of walking dead by himself, simply cutting them down where they stood. Everyone seemed to surge forward into the cramped hall, and Yuffie lingered back on the stairs hesitantly as she stared down at the corpse nearby oozing coagulating blood across the floor.

Vincent stared down at it numbly, finally kneeling down to get a better look in the poor lighting. He shook his head in disgust and stood, turning away from the creature quickly.

"It seems there is no end to the horrors Hojo is willing to commit." He said morbidly. Reno stared back at him and sighed.

"At least someone understands where I'm coming from." He muttered, fists clenched as he made his way down the hall.

**xXx**

Yuffie clenched her teeth, trying to ignore the crunching sound her shuriken made as she pulled it roughly from another body. She felt her stomach lurch and rushed to the side, shoving Red XIII out of her way as she threw herself on the nearest garbage can.

"Yea, that's what I thought." Cait Sith said almost cheerfully. "Makes me glad I can't smell it." He pointed at his nose and Yuffie glared daggers at him.

"Shut up, Reeve." She growled, staggering across the room and leaning heavily on Reno's shoulder as he leaned over a desk.

"Is that it?" She asked desperately, staring at the thick pile of papers he held.

"Actually, I think it is." He replied. Yuffie's eyes widened in disbelief and she grabbed his ponytail, yanking him back in excitement.

"You mean we can go home now?!" She howled, hugging him tightly as he grimaced in pain.

"No, we still need to go to Seventh Heaven." Cloud said quietly from beside her, startling her out of her clumsy victory dance. She stared at him awkwardly as she noticed the disapproving glare she and Reno were getting.

Ignoring the soft blush coloring her paled cheeks, Yuffie made her way across the room, avoiding the scattered bodies of the unfortunate Shin-ra employees and stepping up beside Vincent. It seemed like in such a morbid place, he fit in perfectly. She found it comforting to know that they were on the same team.

"You should be careful around him." He said quietly, not even looking at her as she stepped up beside him. She looked up at him curiously, almost feeling out of place by having a conversation with him.

"What do you mean?" She asked, glancing back over to the desks where Reno and Cloud were sorting through their mountain of papers.

"He is an ex-Turk now, he has been trained for the past few years to protect the president and do as he's told." He looked down at her to emphasize his point, and Yuffie pouted slightly.

"Are you worried he's going to go back to them?" Yuffie asked softly. Vincent didn't talk about something unless there was something she needed to know, if he thought Reno wasn't trustworthy, chances would be good he wasn't. That really wasn't something she wanted to hear.

"No, I do not believe he would return to them easily. I am simply worried that you might expect him to behave as a normal individual." He was almost being friendly, and Yuffie was starting to get creeped out.

"Thanks for the big brother talk, but I think I can handle a Turkey." Yuffie boasted, arms crossed over her chest proudly. She thought she heard Vincent snicker and her eyes shot up to him suspiciously. His eyes remained placid and he gazed down at her, no indication of amusement evident on his face.

"It is not you I am worried about, but those who may be close to you when you demand protection." He stated, watching her expectantly.

"I get it! You mean since it's my fault he left Shin-ra he's going to treat me like the 'president' and protect me now? That's sweet, I guess…" She mumbled, feeling her face heat up again when she realized Vincent knew there was something going on between them. He seemed to give her a somewhat exasperated look and shook his head.

"Yuffie, a Turk kills first and asks questions later. If someone were to so much as touch you his reflexes would tell him to kill them. I do not think it would be wise to take him to Wutai with you when this is over, it is simply not that easy." He finished, almost surprised himself at what a long conversation he had managed. As if to emphasize that the conversation was over, he set about the unpleasant task of helping Barret move the decaying bodies to one corner of the room, at least clearing a walkway through the mess.

Yuffie watched him for another moment, contemplating what he had said. She might have told him he was full of shit if she hadn't known he was an ex-Turk himself. If that was all the more he had improved over the years, what hope did Reno ever have of being normal? She laughed softly to herself, Reno just hadn't been emotionally traumatized enough to ever be like Vincent. Maybe there was hope for him, he was pretty young still. But she had to admit, Vincent was right. Taking Reno back to Wutai with her could cause a lot of trouble. Godo would undoubtedly offend him until he picked a fight, and would either have him killed or banished.

She shook her head violently. Who ever said they were together in this anyway?! He was kinda cool and sweet and all, but they had been sworn enemies weeks before. Sure, he had rescued her from certain death, possibly unbearable torture. He had left Shin-ra behind and brought her back to her comrades unharmed. He had even tried to kiss her earlier that day, but…

Well, there was no guarantee they were going to make it out of this alive anyway.

**End of Chapter Eight! **_Reviews make me update faster. _


	9. Learn to Trust

**Disclaimer: **FFVII belongs to Square-Enix.

**A/n: **I'm sorry this chapter is so incredibly late. I honestly just kind of forgot I was still writing it, and some other things came up. There are most likely typos all over this, I'm not in the mood to proofread it. But anyway, it's back, here's a new chapter, and thanks so much everyone who is still reading this! Thank you for not flaming me for taking forever!

**Chapter Nine: Learn to Trust.**

Yuffie stared down at the several inches of water shimmering in the dim lighting around her. It smelled terrible, and she held her hand to her nose to try and shield herself from it. Glancing back, she paused to wait for the men to catch up to her, walking leisurely and looking over the stack of paperwork they had found to incriminate Shin-ra when they all got out of this.

At least they had made it out of the Shin-ra zombie-death building from hell. She sighed and hugged herself in relief, fighting back a shudder at the memories she knew were burned into her mind forever more. The building had still been in lockdown, and it had taken Reno a while, but he managed to convince the service tunnel to open using a series of passwords he got off of Rufus' computer. One thing Shin-ra wasn't lacking was security, if you got past the storm doors barricading it from the rest of the city, their legion of walking dead would certainly give you trouble. Her arm still hurt from fighting them off while Reno struggled to open the door.

"You alright?"

Yuffie looked up to see Reno walking along beside her. He was tired, that was pretty obvious. They all were, really. She nodded and glanced back ahead as she continued walking. The rest of the group had gone on ahead of them, and she couldn't help but notice that he seemed a little awkward knowing that they were more or less alone now.

"You seem a little shaken up, I figured a great ninja like yourself would hold up better." He forced a weary laugh and Yuffie grinned, punching his arm slightly.

"I'm fine. But I saw you crying back there, all scared in the corner while I had to fight off all those dead guys coming after you." She teased, forcing herself to be cheery despite the effects of the hellhole they had just escaped from.

They were quiet for a while, and she noticed his hand reach out, hesitate, clench into a fist, and then disappear back into his pocket again. She felt her cheek light up and shook her head. Now really wasn't the time to get involved with former enemies.

"So, how's your arm?" She asked quietly, smiling up at him.

"Oh, well… It's alright, I guess." He said, seeming disappointed about something. Yuffie nodded and looked around. The lights lining the tunnel were dim, and it was hard to see much of anything clearly, but she knew they were getting pretty close to wherever the men seemed to want to go. They were walking close together, whispering something rather urgently back and forth. She thought she saw a stern glare sent their way from Vincent before he looked back at Cloud to rejoin the conversation.

She sighed lightly to herself when his words came floating back to her. Would Reno really turn into some kind of overprotective boyfriend if anything actually developed between them? It seemed likely, now that she thought about it. Maybe not to the degree Vincent was convinced it would, but she was pretty sure that if anyone were to insult her in front of him they'd be hurting. That is, if she didn't get to them first… She chuckled and shook her head at the thought, the two of them really had quite a bit in common. Her eyes drifted over to him and she was startled to see that he was giving her an odd look.

"Something wrong?" He asked. Yuffie paled for a moment and quickly shook her head.

"No, nothing. I was just thinking, what a shitty situation we keep finding ourselves in." She said quickly, shrugging. He laughed and it died down soberly as he stared down at the bloodstains on his shoes.

"Yeah…" He said sadly. His face fell and Yuffie watched in concern.

She bumped into him playfully and he stumbled to the side before regaining his balance and staring down at his shoes some more. Yuffie watched him, suddenly feeling sick when she realized what he must be thinking. All those people… They were all dead and rotting, but they were walking around just the same. They were people he probably knew, some of them were probably friends of his, if nothing else, they were coworkers. A new respect for the disciplined training of a Turk seemed to rise up in her at the thought. If it had been Wutai they had been stuck in, she knew she wouldn't be able to handle it.

Her hand shook slightly, but she managed to reach up and wind it through his arm, holding her head up and forcing back an embarrassed blush.

"It'll be alright. We'll get out of here and Cloud'll take us all to Costa Del Sol or somewhere to try and relax. You guys can all get drunk and I can spend the whole time denying that I ever knew you guys." She said jokingly, half hoping maybe Cloud really would take them to the beach to unwind after all their hard work killing dead people.

He smiled softly, unwinding his arm from her grip to brace it gently against her back. She flinched slightly at his touch, but couldn't help the mischievous grin that crossed her face.

**xXx**

"You're kidding, there's no way I'm going out there." Yuffie said flatly, feet planted firmly in the three inches of water covering the floor of the tunnel. Reno pushed gently on her back, trying to coax her out the door after the other men.

"Yuffie, you'll be fine. You have us this time." Cloud said wearily, hand tightening on his sword as he glanced up the stairs at the dying sunlight overhead.

"He is right, Yuffie, none of us would let any harm fall on you." Vincent added, arms crossed in front of him as he stood just outside the door, waiting for the group to continue on.

"Why do we have to go back there anyway?!" She was starting to get upset, and Reno rested his hand on her shoulder soothingly.

"You don't have to go inside, Yuffie, but I need to see it…" Cloud said sadly. His face was hollow, and she bit back another rude remark as he shook his head and went up the stairs. Nanaki and Cait Sith followed his lead, and Barret hesitated for a moment before sighing in defeat and stomping after them.

She felt like she might throw up just thinking about it. He wanted to go back to the bar and find Tifa, he was going to bring her body back, and just the thought made Yuffie feel like she was on the airship and Cid had decided to let the new guy pilot it. She knew there was another reason for going back, the kids hadn't been there when she had stopped by the first time with Reno on their way out of the city, and it was pretty obvious that this was quickly becoming a sort of recovery mission. She wasn't sure she would be able to get on the airship knowing that the bodies of their friends would also be on board.

"Everybody's leaving." Reno said softly. She felt tears sting at her eyes and she shook her head.

"I can't do it, I can't go back there and see her like that." She said quietly, her voice cracking slightly. Her knees started to buckle and Reno grabbed her, pulling her up into his arms and stepping forward out the door. She didn't complain, but refused to look around at the dying city as he stepped out into the light after the rest of the group.

He put her down after a few minutes and she dragged herself alongside him, her shuriken hanging miserably at her side as she forced herself not to look around.

Somehow, the same journey along this road that had been so perilous while she was with Reno was a lot less exciting with the experienced members of Avalanche. A group of decaying citizens had crept up at them from a very harassed convenience store and Cloud had finished them off himself without so much as breaking a sweat. Several lone people had stumbled after them, only to be taken down by Vincent, and Yuffie was sure some of the times he had hardly bothered to look. She was sure if they had the mindset to do it, they could clean out the city single-handedly.

They came to a stop and she knew they were at the bar. A few gunshots sounded and several thumps as bodies hit the ground across the street, and Cloud stepped forward past the broken door. Yuffie glanced up just long enough to recognize her previous home, looking very apocalyptic with dead bodies slumped against it and an arm hanging out one shattered window.

She felt her stomach heave dangerously and she doubled over, getting control before something embarrassing happened. She looked up to see Reno stepping in the door after the rest of the men, and she glanced around to realize they had left her alone in the street. Letting out a curse, she hobbled through the door after them and glued her eyes to the counter to avoid the scene across the room.

Everyone was gathered around the corner where Reno pointed out the fallen martial artist. If nothing else, the virus had preserved her body fairly well. That didn't stop Barret from turning away in horror, however, and he started towards the stairs, voice wavering slightly as he called out hopefully for Marlene.

Yuffie let herself slump on a barstool, head resting miserably on the countertop. The smell was sickeningly strong here, and she felt herself getting nauseous. Her eyes trailed after Vincent as he went up the stairs, returning a moment later with a stack of sheets she wasn't interested in knowing the reason for. She couldn't block out the sickening bumps and thuds as they moved Tifa's body onto the sheets and wrapped her up carefully, moving her to the side and kneeling down for a moment. Reno was starting to understand how Yuffie felt, and moved around the counter to dig for some alcohol left over. he came back up with a bottle of tequila, and Yuffie winced in disgust as he started to drink from it. He was about to ask her if she wanted him to mix her a drink when Cloud's startled voice rang out across the room.

"Look at this." He said quickly, tracing his fingers over something on the floor. Even Yuffie couldn't resiste jumping up curiously to see what he had found.

"She was lying on it." He said absently.

"What is it?" Nanaki asked, stepping forward despite the heavy odor of death.

Cloud seemed lost in thought, knocking slightly on the floor for a moment before his fingers started to feel around for something.

"It's a door." He couldn't hide the hopeful tone in his voice as he found the handle and pulled up on it violently.

Nothing happened, and he cursed, more in excitement than frustration. Throwing himself flat on the floor, he pounded on the trapdoor.

"Marlene?! Are you in there?!" He shouted, pressing his ear to the floor to listen.

Everyone stood around with bated breath, Barret nearly throwing them all aside as he heard Cloud's shout.

Time seemed to slow down considerably, and Yuffie found herself holding her breath as she strained to try and hear something. She was starting to think that it was a lost cause when thumping sounded under the floorboards. A latch clicked and the door was thrown open as Cloud scrambled back to give it room.

"Cloud!" Marlene shrieked, tears streaming down her face as she threw herself at him.

A loud cheer erupted from the Avalanche members as he hugged her tightly and hauled her up. Everyone crowded around in relief, and Barret leaned down to help Denzel up from the trapdoor after her.

**xXx**

The battle to get back aboard the Highwind was exciting enough, and Yuffie was sure she would never need anymore excitement as long as she lived. Cid had brought the airship down as low as he could while trying to fend off the angry Shin-ra helicopters trying to stall them until the big guns arrived, but mainly everyone had to scurry up the ladder and pray they didn't get hit or caught in the crossfire. Not the most graceful or professional escape, but thankfully, Shin-ra was still recovering from the devastation and hadn't been prepared for such an act from Avalanche.

Heaving a sigh, Yuffie leaned her head back against the wall of the chocobo stable and closed her eyes. It was too cold for her liking outside, so she contented herself with hiding in the chocobo stables in case her air sickness decided to return and make itself known to everyone nearby. Everyone was in the meeting room, as far as she knew, talking about what to do with the evidence they found against Shin-ra, and undoubtedly, what to do about Tifa. Neither subject was really something she wanted to be involved in at the moment, leaving the rest of the adventure up to the men.

"You don't look so good." Reno said quietly.

She almost jumped, her eyes snapping open in slight alarm as she wondered how he had managed to sneak up on her. She supposed she had been zoning out a bit, but he was kneeling right in front of her and she hadn't heard him.

"Do you need any more tranquilizers?" He asked, either oblivious to the fact that he had snuck up on a professional ninja or simply didn't care.

"Oh, um, no." Yuffie mumbled, gathering herself again and straightening up. She had taken enough that she felt alright for the moment, but there was really no telling with her touchy airsickness.

He nodded slightly and glanced over at the empty stable. Yuffie watched him curiously for a moment, trying to sort out exactly how she felt about him.

"So what's the plan?" She asked. He looked back at her, but seemed lost in thought.

"Cloud's going to drop off a copy of the paperwork to each of the major news stations in Junon, then we're going to Nibelheim for Tifa's funeral." He said quietly. Yuffie nodded and looked down at her hands folded neatly in front of her.

"So where are you going after all this?" She couldn't help but ask. His home had been in Midgar, and now that he left Shin-ra he had basically nothing left. He sat back and thought about it for a moment.

"You know, I'm really not sure." He said honestly. "I'll probably have to lie low for a while, if Rufus finds me I'm screwed." He let out a laugh and Yuffie grinned, he was on the run like the rest of them now.

"I always liked snow, maybe I'll go to Icicle Village or something." He said after a moment. "What about you? Going back to Wutai?" He added.

Yuffie snorted. "Not a chance, that place has gotten so damn yuppie." She said bitterly, pausing to giggle slightly at the thought of Godo being so proud of his 'powerful' tourist attraction.

They were both quiet for a while, listening to the hum of the airship and the occasional pounding of footsteps on the floor outside the doorway as crewmembers hurried back and forth. Reno cleared his throat and glanced over at her nervously.

"You know, I'm sure there's lots of stuff for a ninja like yourself to do in a snowy wonderland like Icicle Village." He said casually.

Yuffie punched his shoulder and laughed, pushing herself up to her feet and wobbling slightly as her stomach jumped.

"That horrible wasteland? I'd rather go back to Midgar!" She laughed and hurried out the door before he could see the burning blush on her face.

**xXx**

Yuffie huffed, her breath billowing up in a glittering cloud in front of her as the morning sunlight danced though it. The snow around her sparkled beautifully in the light, and she had to hold a hand up to block the glow as she heard someone shout her name.

"Did you hear?" The old woman shouted, her voice raised anxiously. Yuffie gave her a confused look and shook her head.

"Hear what?" She called back, resting a hand on the stack of firewood she'd been organizing.

"It was on the news! Somebody not too far from here was found infected with that horrible disease!" She woman shouted worriedly, hurrying over to Yuffie and grabbing her arm to steady herself.

"Are you serious? It's come this far now?" Yuffie replied, more curiously than really worried. The woman panted slightly and nodded, holding a gloved hand to her chest.

"Yes, the prevention team is on their way here right now to finish up the vaccine and check for more infections. We're all going to get vaccinated tonight." She breathed.

"Well that's good, at least it won't spread then." Yuffie replied, stacking some firewood on her arm and following the woman back around the corner of the Inn. The woman nodded and opened the door for her.

"Yes, I've been so worried. After that horrible tragedy with Midgar, I was just sure we were all going to get it and that would be the end of us. It was such a relief to us all when we heard they had a vaccine." She said briskly, following Yuffie over beside the fireplace.

She pulled off her heavy coat and tossed it down beside the wood, pulling off her gloves to shove in her pocket. The woman was beaming over at her and Yuffie gave her a curious look.

"When are you going to tell me about your friend?" The old woman asked slyly, nodding over towards the stools along the counter.

Yuffie looked past her and immediately noticed the flaming red hair, almost rolling her eyes, thought she had come to expect him here. She ignored the prying and giggling old woman as she tottered away towards the kitchen.

"Came for breakfast again?" Yuffie asked, throwing herself down in the seat beside him and smiling.

Reno looked up from the newspaper he was reading and grinned. "Best food in town." He replied quietly.

"They're coming to vaccinate us, Yuffie. We might get infected." He said in a hushed and serious tone, leaning towards her playfully and she pushed him away. She rolled her eyes and took the paper away from him.

"You couldn't get infected if you tried." She mumbled to herself, giving him a fake scowl as he tried to grab the paper back.

"Hey I'm trying to read." She shot back, pulling it away from him.

He watched her for a moment in defeat as she scanned her eyes over the page, checking for anything new or exciting to read about. He couldn't help himself, and leaned in to kiss her cheek as she ignored him. Her back stiffened and the energetic old woman peeking out at them from the kitchen let out a triumphant laugh.

Yuffie turned slowly to eye him, and he looked down at the cup of hot coffee in front of him nervously.

"Hey… Reno?" She said quietly, setting down the paper and staring at him. He glanced over curiously and she darted in, kissing him lightly before he even realized what was happening. She picked up the paper again and kept reading, ignoring his stare and the pleased grin on his face.

**xXx**

It was snowing again, but it was almost always snowing here. The air was slightly colder than usual with the sun going down over the ocean, and the air was almost uncomfortably still. She glanced back at the Shin-ra helicopter parked beside a white medical tent. There were still townspeople filing into the tent, and there was another group being herded over to another area for filing paperwork.

Yuffie sighed and wrapped her arms around herself. What a hellish experience _that_ had been. She didn't even _need_ it, but Shin-ra was keeping track of everyone that was given the vaccine, and if she refused chances were good she would be arrested.

"All done?"

She spun around to find Reno not too far away, pulling his coat back on and rubbing the inside of his elbow painfully. She nodded and watched suspiciously as he walked over to her. He was getting all too comfortable around her, and exciting as it was, it made her uneasy. For all she knew, he could be a Shin-ra spy still, keeping track of former Avalanche members. Somehow, that idea seemed funny to her now. Especially as he wound his arms around her to help ward off the cold.

"There was an outbreak in Junon today." He said quietly, his voice low. Yuffie squeezed her eyes shut, she really hadn't wanted to know people were still dying because of Hojo's latest experiment.

"How bad was it?" She couldn't help but ask.

There had been several cases reported earlier that week, but they hadn't been confirmed, and the Shin-ra medical teams were still trying to finish up vaccinating people at risk. They were spread far and wide, and Yuffie was still holding her breath for word that Wutai was safe from the threat.

"Less than one hundred. They caught it quickly, it was probably in one of the Shin-ra buildings there and they were watching for it." He replied.

She nodded and stared down the mountainside, stretching on for miles before seeming to melt into the horizon with the ocean. It was really beautiful out here, there wasn't anywhere else on the planet with a view like this. She wasn't sure how Reno had convinced her to come here with him, but it was a nice change from the barren and rocky terrain of Wutai.

His hand slipped into hers and she looked down at it as he started to pull her along.

"Let's go find some dinner, it's freezing out here." He called over his shoulder. Yuffie smiled to herself and hurried to catch up.

It was amazing how much one day could change your life. She shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if she hadn't found him in that service tunnel the day the infection spread. And what a romantic image that was, him holding his nose and screaming curses at her, while she huddled across the tunnel in fear.

"You okay?" Reno asked, glancing down at her. She tightened her grip on his hand and nodded, a fake smile on her face as she forced the memories from her mind.

"Yeah, just really hungry." She mumbled, finally glancing back at the medical tents and the long line of villagers waiting anxiously for their vaccine injection.

It was starting to look like the crisis was over and, for the first time, Yuffie found herself able to relax. With the vaccine, the infection would be harmless. Shin-ra was finished as a major world power, thanks to the solid evidence Cloud had given every major news station in Junon. And the princess and her ex Turk ran off and lived happily ever after.

It was so cliché, Yuffie knew something would undoubtedly go wrong.

**End of Chapter Nine**

_This is where the story is supposed to end, but it won't because I happened to realize that ending it here would suck. I guess it turned out a bit more AU then I thought it would, like how the hell was Denzel in there?! I kept asking myself that over and over, and the answer always came back; Because Marlene would be really fucked up if she was in that basement all alone. _

_But yea, if you were curious, this was going to be the end of the story which would have ended something like this:_

_**And Yuffie gazed up happily at Reno, eyes sparkling with the beauty of the setting sun. Everything was absolutely perfect, a complete fairytale to fulfill every little girl's dreams. The light was shining gorgeously on his flame red hair, and she knew somewhere in this frozen wasteland birds were singing from the perfection in that moment. How could anything ever go wrong again when things were so wonderfully right?**_

_**Reno took that moment to put a cigarette in his mouth, digging in his pocket for a lighter as Yuffie's eyes widened in horror. **_

"_**What?" He asked, blowing the smoke away from her face. At least he had manners. **_

_**Tears began to form in Yuffie's eyes and she slid her hand from his grasp. **_

"_**My mother died of lung cancer." She said pitifully, lip quivering in emotion as her eyes glued themselves to the cancer stick. **_

_**Reno took it in his hand for a moment, staring down at it as if inspecting it for any potential danger. **_

"_**Oh… Yuffie…" He said gently, putting it back in his mouth and rubbing her shoulders. **_

"_**I can't get cancer, babe. I'm infected, remember? Cancer can't live in undead lungs." He said casually. **_

_**It rolled off his tongue like something from a fortune cookie, and Yuffie wrenched herself from his grip. **_

"_**I can't believe you, Reno…" She said, her voice wavering in anger. She started to walk away and he reached out to her. Slapping his hand away angrily, she rounded on him. **_

"_**I'm not putting out!" She declared, stomping away up the hill. **_

_**Reno stared after her in horror, letting the cigarette drop into the snow. Shaking his head in confusion, he stepped on it as he began to follow her. **_

"_**What did I do?" He asked miserably.**_

_**The End**_

_Obviously, that wouldn't have gone over well. And no, it wasn't serious either._


End file.
